Ever since I began developing my own compositional language, my music has been shaped by a dialogue between formal composition and improvisation what I prefer to call spontaneous music. I see this as the most enriching element of the musical act, both for oneself and for others. It has therefore become the true cornerstone of my compositional methodology and my musical voice.

Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine is based on a flexible score that brings together composed music and spontaneous music. I therefore tend to describe Perle Noire as a musical work possessing a kind of three-dimensionality. First, there is the written score, which provides a common foundation for everyone. Then come the indications for spontaneity embedded within that score. Finally, there is a third level, where we move freely through the musical landscape. As a result, not everyone can perform this music. Although I generally use traditional Western notation, I expect my musicians to know when to leave the page behind. The performers I work with must therefore remain constantly alert even with the score in front of them. What I seek to create is an odyssey that is at once serene, intense, and dangerously vertiginous. To me, this reflects the very feeling of being alive, while demanding absolute artistic authenticity. In this way, the work continues to evolve through the uniquely heightened perspectives of the musicians who perform it, shifting artistic authority away from a single individual and toward an entire constellation of personalities.

For Perle Noire, Peter, Julia, and I initially envisioned an intimate portrait of Joséphine a portrait that would explore the inner turmoil of her heart. The piece was therefore never intended as an exercise in impersonation or disguise; on the contrary, it sought to avoid becoming a merely nostalgic excursion. We wanted to acknowledge her as a vulnerable human being, confronted with marginalization and with the suffering and violence inflicted upon Black people. The project thus became less a portrait than a deconstruction of the myth.

My task was to create songs that would stand at a considerable distance from Baker's original recordings. I wanted listeners to pay close attention to the words she sang. My aim was to reveal a side of her that was already present in some of her lyrics, yet concealed beneath light-hearted melodies, at times conventional arrangements, and lush harmonies. I therefore had to resist superficial listening. The emotional complexity of Baker's life and texts should not merely be noticed by the audience I wanted it to be felt. So that Joséphine herself, along with the messages she carried, could truly be heard. To intensify this underlying tragedy, I chose to slow the tempi, stretch the rhythm, and introduce raw sonorities ranging from the barely audible to pure silence.

For some, the music of Perle Noire therefore failed to be culturally "authentic." Some critics even argued that my arrangements of Baker's iconic songs were "painfully monochromatic everything she herself was not." But Perle Noire rejects the very notion of a canonical Joséphine Baker. In every possible way, we sought to free her from the violence of the white gaze, so that her story could finally be told in all its complexity.

For many of those critics, however, the music of Perle Noire was simply not "Black enough." Yet my work has never been about being merely "authentically Black." I never wanted to force Baker into the mold of the stereotypical Black artist, any more than I wish to fit that stereotype myself. The fact that these critics expected me, simply because I am a Black composer, to "stay in my lane" only underscores how deeply the simplistic racial narratives imposed upon Baker continue to resonate today.

Tyshawn Sorey