The provocative names of Eastman’s works often meet the listener before the music does. “These names,” he stated at the premiere, “either I glorify them or they glorify me.” Both being true, they glorify what culture at large is wrongfully compelled to demonize. They are, he continues, “the field n——s on which the American economic system was built… that fundamental thing which eschews the superficial or, can we say, elegant.” Rather than be wounded and defeated by bigoted language, he wears it as a badge of honor. He doubles down with additional negative qualifiers, proudly repurposing the language with a musical militancy rarely placed on a historically white, male concert stage. And he glorifies this language, equating the “many kinds of N——s” with the 99 names of Allah.  

This work is designed according to Eastman’s “organic” method of composition. Beginning with a three-note figure (F-E-D), on this tactile bed of pitches he introduces a seven-note “Dies irae” theme, which anchors the work at various points with tremendous gravitas. This is heightened by Eastman’s audible count-offs, cueing the only moments the performers synchronize. As the work storms into being, this theme returns like a clap of thunder, elsewhere evanescing like angels descending into the world. Projecting it into various key centers, dense atmospheres of sound accrue. Moving through these harmonic fields, a cascade of moods transfigures like the iridescent colors of a pearl, before disintegrating into silence.