A Movement for Rosa

A Movement for Rosa by Mark Camphouse was commissioned by the Florida Bandmasters Association and honors civil rights heroine Rosa Parks. A single movement—a quasi tone poem—contains three contrasting sections. Section I evokes Rosa’s early years, from her birth on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, through her marriage in 1932 to Raymond Parks in Pine Level, Alabama. Section II portrays years of racial strife in Montgomery and the quest for social equality. The third section is one of quiet strength and serenity. The hymn, "We Shall Overcome," foreshadowed in Sections I and II by motivic fragmentation, is heard in its entirety near the end. The work’s final measures serve as an ominous reminder of racism’s lingering presence in modern American society. (Source: TRN Music Publisher)