University of York Music Press

On 20 May 2020, George Floyd, who had played a part in the rise of one of Houston’s much loved rap crews Screwed Up Click renowned for their slow-rolling beats, was also murdered. In the wake of this horrendous event there was an outpouring of music written by composers across the world, an incredibly powerful wave of protest and grief, raw and spontaneous. I wrote 10,000 Black Men (a reference to the custom of 1920s America when porters for the Pullman Rail Company all of whom were black, were addressed as ‘George’) in the week following Floyd’s death - a desire for solidarity, to give expression to the guilt and pain that I felt and perhaps to find some ‘order’ in what felt like a chaotic and terrifying world. Coretta is a meditation on King’s favourite hymn Precious Lord, take my hand (his last words prior to his assassination were a request that it be sung at a mass he was to attend that night), and it seemed important to return to this beautiful hymn to mark the assassination of George Floyd, so close to King’s 50th Anniversary in 2018.

Precious Lord, take my hand, 
Lead me on, let me stand, 
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn; 
Through the storm, through the night, Lead me on to the light.
Take my hand, precious Lord, Lead me home

An introduction to the recording can be found here: