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Oboe & Piano; Cello & Piano; Bb Clarinet or Soprano Saxophone & Piano TO ORDER: Please use the CONTACT FORM |
The Door of No Return
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"Beautiful composition…" CM (YouTube Comments)
"Wow. That is beautiful. The way the two instrumental parts respond to, and feed off each other, is lovely." SN, (YouTube Comments) |
"C'est beau et émouvant à la fois". RM, France
"Congratulations! I look forward to hearing more from The Door of No Return." SC, Essex |
"This is poignant and powerful... I thoroughly enjoyed listening… and also reading more about the inspiration and origins of the concept. Looking forward to watching the upcoming video releases." SL, Herts.
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A New Work for Solo Instrument & Piano by Althea Talbot-Howard Commemorating The transatlantic slave trade & forced labour in the New World The late US Congress Representative John Lewis (1940-2020) Celebrating The American Civil Rights movement The Return to Africa movement & Ghana's Year of Return (2019) |
Dahomey - Betty's Hope - The Door of Return
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New Recital Performance - from 26:40 onwards
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Dahomey was inspired by the magnificent monument on the coast of Benin (formerly French Dahomey): The Door of No Return (Ouidah). It charts the abduction of slaves by rival nations from elsewhere in the African continent; the march to the Slave Coast; the sometimes-lethal journey across the Atlantic; and forced labour on the island of Antigua.
Betty’s Hope plantation in Antigua is now an open-air museum. The estate produced sugar from 1650 until the mid-20th century. Its profits helped to fund the monumental Library at All Souls’ College, Oxford; and fed into the wealth of the City of London. The music is a requiem for all those who passed away as slave labourers: and for Representative John Lewis, whose death in 2020 took him through his own personal Door of No Return. The Door of Return explores the 21st-century return to Africa by members of the African diaspora, many of whom have recently settled in Ghana. It is joyful music, but behind that joy lies interest in how this step will work out for them, on a long-term basis. The end of the piece is more poignant in tone, commemorating John Lewis’s visit - with the Congressional Black Caucus - to the Doors at Cape Coast and Elmina Castles, Ghana, in 2019. |
Additional Videos
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Recital Performance - from 11:55 onwards
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In Memoriam John Lewis
This short film by Jeff Bieber uses historical footage of the Civil Rights movement, with Dahomey as its soundtrack. Also available on Washington Week Home Page |
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The British Premiere Performance was given by
Ashley Brand, Soprano Saxophone, on 30 June 2022 |
New Broadcast!
Zachary Allen, Oboist
The up-and-coming 17-year-old excels in his performance of The Door of Return, the final part of The Door of No Return. On Track 3 - after a brief introduction - you can hear Zachary and Peter Dugan perform the piece. Photo credit: From the Top
The up-and-coming 17-year-old excels in his performance of The Door of Return, the final part of The Door of No Return. On Track 3 - after a brief introduction - you can hear Zachary and Peter Dugan perform the piece. Photo credit: From the Top
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Further Information about The Door of No Return
The Genesis of the Concept behind 'The Door of No Return'
As a bi-racial person, I inherited an interesting position vis-à-vis slavery, inasmuch my ancestors include both enslavers and those at risk from slavery. On the English (maternal) side, I am a twelfth-generation direct descendant of King Charles II, who signed proclamations and charters for the Royal Africa Company in the mid-1600s, which inaugurated Britain’s formal involvement in the slave trade. On the African (paternal) side, I am descended from the Igbo people of Biafra, from whose numbers many people were stolen and traded – and that presumably includes distant relations of mine.
As mentioned above, the concept for this work originates in the year 2013, when I first came across photographs and articles online about the monument at Ouidah and the Door of Return in Ghana: and when I visited Antigua. In 2020, I began an artistic collaboration with an American solo oboist via communications technology, and she mentioned that a compatriot of hers wanted to make a short musical tribute film to the late John Lewis. After some discussion about suitable music, I offered to write entirely new music for the film, which would have slavery and the Civil Rights movement as its specific programmes. I knew that I wanted to use the Ouidah monument that had captured my imagination years previously: and also my sorrow-filled trip to Antigua and Betty’s Hope.
As an anthropologist (having studied this subject at university), I wanted to find out more about how African-Americans are settling into such an unfamiliar culture as that of Ghana’s, and how viable this change is likely to be, long-term. So far, many people – judging by their YouTube videos – are finding it to be a rewarding change, which is wonderful news. Long may their happiness continue!
As a bi-racial person, I inherited an interesting position vis-à-vis slavery, inasmuch my ancestors include both enslavers and those at risk from slavery. On the English (maternal) side, I am a twelfth-generation direct descendant of King Charles II, who signed proclamations and charters for the Royal Africa Company in the mid-1600s, which inaugurated Britain’s formal involvement in the slave trade. On the African (paternal) side, I am descended from the Igbo people of Biafra, from whose numbers many people were stolen and traded – and that presumably includes distant relations of mine.
As mentioned above, the concept for this work originates in the year 2013, when I first came across photographs and articles online about the monument at Ouidah and the Door of Return in Ghana: and when I visited Antigua. In 2020, I began an artistic collaboration with an American solo oboist via communications technology, and she mentioned that a compatriot of hers wanted to make a short musical tribute film to the late John Lewis. After some discussion about suitable music, I offered to write entirely new music for the film, which would have slavery and the Civil Rights movement as its specific programmes. I knew that I wanted to use the Ouidah monument that had captured my imagination years previously: and also my sorrow-filled trip to Antigua and Betty’s Hope.
As an anthropologist (having studied this subject at university), I wanted to find out more about how African-Americans are settling into such an unfamiliar culture as that of Ghana’s, and how viable this change is likely to be, long-term. So far, many people – judging by their YouTube videos – are finding it to be a rewarding change, which is wonderful news. Long may their happiness continue!
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Level of Technical Difficulty
Dahomey & Betty’s Hope are around Grade 8 standard, making them accessible to students and good amateur players. The Door of Return has a higher level of technical difficulty. Musical Structure & Themes On a macro-level, the entire work is a set of variations on the key of Eb minor. This soulful key is explored throughout the piece through the use of contrasting tone centres and different types of scale. Rich in colour and timbre, these connected keys - Eb & Ab minors; Gb & B (Cb) majors are ideal for exploring human tragedy and tentative joy. On the micro-level, each part of the piece is a form of theme with variations; includes a dance section honouring the African love of communal dance; and is written within a post-minimalist aesthetic. Detailed information is available in my notes for the score. The Composer's Score Edition (the pre-publication edition) is available via the Contact Page. |
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Artistic Collaborators
Executive producer Jeff Bieber has won numerous awards including two national EMMYS, two George Foster Peabody awards, and a duPont-Columbia Award. Vice President of Content Development & Production for WETA Public Broadcasting Service in the USA, Jeff is responsible for content development, marketing, & project management of national Primetime programs and public media initiatives airing on PBS. Award-winning documentary series he has executive-produced include Avoiding Armageddon (2003) - an 8-hour series about weapons of mass destruction; America at a Crossroads (2007) - a 12-hour series on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and multiple series about immigrant experience and transformation of the American identity. These programs include The Jewish Americans (2008); Latino Americans (2013); The Italian Americans (2015); The Pilgrims (2015), & The Asian Americans in May 2020. Bieber is also executive producer for Washington Week, the weekly primetime news and analysis program on PBS.
American photographer Julio Obscura was the Official Photographer for Speaker Pelosi in the US Congress from 2016-2020: hence he documented the Congressional Black Caucus' visit to Ghana in 2019 for the Year of Return. We are extremely grateful for his permission to use some of these photographs in this project; and you can see more of them - and read his report of the visit - here. Julio is currently a Fulbright Scholar, and is enjoying studying for his master's degree in Digital Design at the Royal College of Art in London.
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons; Shutterstock; Julio Obscura; Althea Talbot-Howard
