In a time and place where physical hardship and emotional anguish were a way of life for a people in bondage, God placed into their hearts and onto their lips a song. So powerful was this song that in its words was hope itself, in its melody the peace for which their hearts yearned, and in its rhythm the pulse of the Almighty who sustained them. That song was the spiritual, and it survives to this day as one of the most deeply moving expressions of the human spirit. It is upon the foundation established by these pioneers that Moses Hogan has built, adding his own unique contribution to the deep river of the Negro spirituals. As is evident in the songs of the Deep River collection, in his work are fused the harmonic sensibility honed by his years as a student and practitioner of classical piano literature, his love of the human voice, and his musical roots in the African-American Baptist Church. -- $$c Foreword.
