“We Wear the Mask” by Valerie Capers for solo tenor, piano, percussion, and bass. Arranged by Josephine Gandolfi. 17 pages.

Live concert video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEE1oFUSX_8

“We Wear the Mask” is recorded on Cambria CD 1270: “Good News: African American Spirituals and Art Songs,” Othello Jefferson, tenor

Notes:

Valerie Capers composed “We Wear the Mask” in 1986 as the third piece in a five-movement choral work with instrumental accompaniment, entitled The Gift of Song, based on the poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, commissioned by a CUNY (City University of New York) research grant. With permission of the composer, Josephine Gandolfi arranged the work in 2019 for solo tenor, piano, percussion, and bass.