Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 22, 1993 TAG: 9302200204
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
`MOVEMENT FOR ROSA' HONORS HER PART IN THE MOVEMENT
Mark Camphouse said he remembers hearing the chants of black people crying for freedom on the television set when he was a child.And he says he still remembers the men who delivered the coal for the family furnace, back when he was a kid in a white neighborhood near Chicago.
For Camphouse, 38, a composer and director of bands at Radford University, these memories are the roots of "A Movement for Rosa," which he composed last fall. Camphouse will conduct the Radford University Wind Ensemble in the Virginia premiere of "Rosa" on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Radford University's Preston Auditorium.
But it was an article about civil rights legend Rosa Parks in Parade magazine in January 1992 that made him get started, Camphouse said.
"That morning as I sat reading," he recalled, "I knew I had to write this piece.
"We tend to glorify and make heroes of presidents, war heroes, athletes." But Parks, Camphouse noted, "was the inspiration behind a major social movement. . . . Here's this little black lady who worked as a tailor's assistant in the Deep South, and she made it happen."
Parks was the Montgomery, Ala., seamstress who refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. The incident, on Dec. 1, 1955, led to Parks' arrest.
It also led, more or less directly, to Martin Luther King, to Selma, to Memphis - to Freedom Summer and the Voting Rights Act and all the other faces, names and places that made up the civil rights movement of the '50s and '60s.
Now, it has even led to the concert hall.
Attempts to reach Parks - who at 79 still maintains an active schedule - were unsuccessful. Calls to her Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development in Detroit were not returned.
It is, in fact, far from certain that Parks is even aware of the piece, which Camphouse said is the only musical tribute to her, so far as he knows.
But Parks has inspired other works of art. A sculpture of Parks was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in 1991. Parks, who was present, called that "the high point of my life."
Whether Parks knows of Camphouse's tribute to her or not, she is apparently going to hear it. Parks is scheduled to be in Boise, Idaho, on April 15 to accept a quilt from the Boise Peace Quilters, said Marcellus Brown, director of bands at Boise State University.
Brown is planning a performance of "Rosa" as part of the ceremony.
"I'm terribly excited about the piece - and even more excited that within the next couple of months we'll have an opportunity to play it for Rosa Parks," said the band director. "It is a good piece. It's thoughtful, heartfelt music."
Camphouse wrote his first symphony at age 17. His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. "Rosa," which the composer calls a "quasi tone poem," was commissioned by the Florida Bandmasters Association, though Camphouse selected the topic himself.
It was first performed last month by the University of Florida Symphonic Band & Wind Ensemble at a meeting of the Florida Music Educators Association in Tampa. It received a standing ovation.
"Rosa" starts out spare and simple, as the composer envisions Parks' childhood. Parks was born in Tuskegee, Ala. "It begins very, very austere," Camphouse said.
And accessible.
"It's a very tonal piece," Camphouse said. In fact, he wrote "Rosa" with the idea that it could be played by good high school bands - and not coincidentally, help introduce another generation to Parks' place in history. "Rosa" is intended as teaching tool, as well as art.
The middle section has a different feel, mirroring in music the struggle for black civil rights. "The middle section gets very dissonant, very angry," said Camphouse.
The third and final section, in Camphouse's words, "is one of quiet strength and serenity" - but there are ominous notes at the end to suggest lingering racial problems.
At least a few of the music educators in the Tampa audience were impressed enough to want the piece for themselves.
A performance at the University of South Florida is scheduled for the same night as Radford's - Tuesday. A performance also is planned by the Syracuse (N.Y.) University Wind Ensemble in April.
"I think the piece is very exciting. It's very intense," said Robert Spradling, director of bands at Syracuse.
"I reacted very strongly to it," Spradling said of the Tampa performance. "You could hear the strife and the stress in the music. . . . More than anything else, I'm looking forward to hearing it again."
Mark Camphouse, meanwhile, has already set his sights on another American icon: Babe Ruth.
The world's most famous New York Yankee was born in Baltimore on Feb. 6, 1895. The composer hopes to mark the centennial of the Babe's birth with a symphony.
"I want to premiere in Yankee Stadium," Camphouse said.
Radford University's Wind Ensemble and Concert Band perform "A Movement for Rosa" and other works Tuesday at 8 p.m., Radford University's Preston Auditorium. Tickets, $3 adults; $1 children. 831-5177.