The composer writes: "From the beginning of the compositional process Dr. King’s texts were both my inspiration and challenge. These writings are neither lyrics nor poetry; they are political essays, speeches, and sermons. What is often effective when spoken from a podium or pulpit is rarely so in the concert hall. Yet, there is a poetic thread, a beauty and command of the English language that runs throughout much of King’s writings. My challenge was first to sift through more than 700 pages of King’s complete works and to select carefully those passages that I felt were conducive to song. This meant omitting a great deal of powerful phrases for which King is well known but also including some passages which have been overlooked.
"I selected from a wide range of topics throughout Dr. King’s political leadership. The songs are organized chronologically, so to hear the work in its entirety is to relive a sobering segment of American history. The opening song, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, represents the King’s initial involvement with Civil Rights Movement; the final song, I’ve Seen the Promise Land, is derived from a sermon that King delivered the night before he died. In that sermon King prophetically compares himself to Moses.
‘I’ve been to the mountaintop...He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land...Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.’
"All of the words sung are taken directly from Dr. King. The title itself, A Time to Break Silence, comes from King’s famous address on the Vietnam War, which was delivered at The Riverside Church, though that particular essay is not used in the cycle.
"The musical decisions follow from King’s text. King, throughout his creative life, was continually contrasting opposing ideas. Some of these found their way into the text of this cycle.
‘Soothing warmth of summer...piercing chill of winter; life’s moments of drought...moments of flood.’
"Just as the words of this cycle focus on some of these polarities, so too is the music driven by extremity; sound vs. silence, chromatic vs. diatonic, harmonic vs. melodic; in the piano writing, the black keys vs. the white keys. When each of these distinct musical worlds is eventually allowed to merge with its counterpart, the result is a diverse musical fabric. In King’s own words 'We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.' "
-- Kyle Blaha