Clarinet in Bb
Horn in F
February 2nd, 2017
Pale Blue. Winter Winds
Nicholas Goodwin, flute; Aidan Dugan, oboe; Nicholas Brown, clarinet
Michael Mikulka, horn; Adam Drake, bassoon; Andrew Q. Langman, piano
conducted by Tiffany Galus
Bates Hall at the University of Texas at Austin
Richard and Mildred Loving became an accidental symbol of the civil rights movement, following their marriage in 1958 and their conviction on charges of miscegenation by courts in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Richard was white and Mildred was of African- and Native-American decent, and their marriage was a direct violation of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924. The Virginia government argued it was God’s will to keep the races from separate and that intermarrying was a violation of His design. They also argued that interracial unions were contrary to centuries of tradition and would break down the social order and the moral development of all citizens. In 1967, the Lovings’ case was taken to the Supreme Court who overturned interracial marriage bans across the United States and ruled that marriage is a basic civil right not to be infringed by racially discriminatory laws. Throughout the legal process, Mildred was the voice for her family and for the many other couples and families in this country who had been victims of institutionalized racism.
This chamber movement is the opening sinfonia of a vocal cantata that addresses the struggles this couple lived through and the changes in law and society that Mildred saw during her lifetime. It is a 21st-century take on an 18th-century wedding cantata.