Lift Every Voice (Musinique Sessions | Mayfield)

Musinique sessions are works in progress.

https://www.musinique.com/

 

Lift Every Voice 

I lift every voice like a lantern in the dawn
I hold every syllable like a seed of freedom rising

Lift every voice and sing as the heavens ring
Let the harmonies of liberty breathe through our bones
Let rejoicing rise high as listening skies
Let it roll like a sea of hope we built stone by stone

Sing a song full of the faith the dark past taught
Sing a song full of the hope this new day brought
Facing the rising sun of a morning just begun
We march on till victory is won

Stony is the road we trod
Bitter was the rod that tried to bend our light
Yet with a steady beat our weary feet
Came to the place our elders dreamed in night

We have come over a way watered with tears
We have come through a path soaked by the slaughtered years
Out from the gloomy past
To stand where a gleam breaks through at last

God of our weary years
God of our silent tears
You carried us thus far on the way
You led us by might into the light
Keep our steps in the path we pray

Lest our feet stray from the ground where we met you

Keep us true keep us true

Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world forget you

Keep us near keep us near

Shadowed beneath your hand we stand
True to our God
True to our native land
Rising like a dawn that refuses to dim
Till victory calls our name

 

This Musinique studio session presents a contemporary meditation on the iconic hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing." The piece weaves together the original hymn's themes of perseverance, faith, and collective liberation with new poetic imagery—opening with "I lift every voice like a lantern in the dawn" and introducing metaphors of seeds, stones, and steady beats. While honoring the traditional verses about the "stony road" and prayers to the "God of our weary years," this work-in-progress adds fresh interpretive layers that emphasize individual voice ("I lift," "I hold") within the communal chorus, creating a bridge between historical struggle and present-day resilience.

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" is a hymn written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson in 1900 and set to music by his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson. Created for a celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, it became an anthem of the African American civil rights movement and is often called the "Black National Anthem." The original work is in the public domain.

#LiftEveryVoice #MusiniqueStudios #BlackNationalAnthem #SpiritualMusic #JamesWeldonJohnson #FreedomSongs #GospelReimagined #WorkInProgress #ProtestMusic #SocialJusticeMusic #HymnsReborn #LiberationMusic #StudioSessions #ContemporarySpirituals #MayflieldKing