Let's celebrate a 'Joyous Kwanzaa' into the new year

Kwanzaa is a celebration of African-American culture from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. It ends on the seventh day with gift-giving and a feast of faith called Karamu Ya Imani. The name "Kwanzaa" is derived from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza," meaning "first fruits of the harvest."

At the center of Kwanzaa are the seven principles, or Nguzo Saba. Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the principles.

Here are eight works by composers of African descent or nationality that directly represent one of the principles or capture the essence of them.

Seven Principles, by Women of the Calabash, is a beautiful choral work that introduces us to the meaning of Kwanzaa with Swahili and English names.

Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

The Imani Winds, a prominent Black woodwind quintet, capture the essence of unity symbolically by performing together as a family, as a community.

Imani Winds — Umoja

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.

Maia combines scat singing with traditional African phrasing to create an upbeat self-motivating work that captivates the meaning of "Kujichagulia."

Maia — "Kujichagulia"

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.

George Walker's Icarus in Orbit is about the story of Icarus. It represents collective work and responsibility because Icarus and his father, Daedalus, worked together on homemade wings made of bird feathers and beeswax. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too high. The sun melts the beeswax, causing Icarus to plunge into the sea and drown, which is a dreadful way to learn about responsibility.

George Walker — Icarus in Orbit

Ujamaa (Cooperative economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.

A juba dance is a traditional work song that originates from African slave communities. It features rhythmic hand-clapping and slapping of the thighs.

Florence Beatrice Price — Symphony No. 1 in E Minor: III. Juba Dance

Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Chevalier de Saint-George was a masterful pianist and composer. He was born in a French colony and later in life joined the slave-led resistance in the Caribbean. He had found his purpose.

Chevalier de Saint-George — Symphonie Concertante in G major - Allegro

Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Samuel Coleridge Taylor's African Suite is his creative symphony representing the African experience. The four movements depict that experience and the finale, "Danse Negre," incorporates some of the most interesting compositional aspects.

Samuel Coleridge Taylor — "Danse Negre" from African Suite

Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

The third movement of William Grant Still's First Symphony is based on the poem "An Ante-Bellum Sermon," by Paul Laurence Dunbar, is about emancipation and citizenship of Black people in America. Nicknamed "Humor," the movement represents the faith many slaves had in freedom finding a way. The lines quoted by Still in the score are as follows:

"An' we'll shout ouag halleluyahs, On dat mighty reck'nin' day."

William Grant Still — Symphony No. 1 (Afro-American): III. Animato ("Humor")