There are many ways to communicate a message of great passion and thought. Preachers and politicians speak from pulpits and podiums. Poets wrestle words to a page. Painters wield brushes dipped in acrylics. Dancers jook and jump. Musicians sing and play musical instruments.
Born in 1938, Earnestine Rodgers Robinson is a Memphis artist, gifted with a mysterious mode of “speaking.” She has never studied music or learned to play an instrument. And yet, in the tradition of Handel’s Messiah, Earnestine Robinson composes oratorios steeped in Old and New Testament Bible stories. Her musical compositions, the Nativity, the Crucifixion, and Exodus have been performed in Carnegie Hall and across international waters in Prague. How did music arrive at her command without instruction? Some degree of an answer begins with her parents. Rev. James Rodgers was a pastor and self-taught contractor with a keen ability to read blueprints and build houses. His wife, Euber, was a skilled cook and the mother of his 11 children. Earnestine was the fifth child. Five is the number of grace.
The Rodgers were a Black family of conquering fortitude. They had arrived in Memphis from Arkansas while seeking refuge from the Great Flood of 1937. A few years later, when Earnestine was a toddler, a stomach ailment almost killed the listless child. But God gave a prophetic word to her wise Aunt Ruth. She told James and Euber that Earnestine would survive the sickness because God had plans to use her life in a mighty way. As Earnestine traversed the various stages of childhood to graduate valedictorian from Douglass High School in 1956, the prophecy on her life never left her memory.
When Earnestine was an undergraduate at Fisk University, her father died. Relatives convinced her to leave college and seek employment. Unhappy with the segregated South, she moved to Chicago and trained to become a medical photographer. While in Chicago, she fell in love with Charles Robinson, a Black accountant and pianist. Charles and his casual tinkering included piano riffs from Rachmaninoff. Earnestine told him of a reoccurring dream. She often saw herself playing piano. Maybe the frequent dream was a wink to love on the horizon because Earnestine married Charles. They moved to Memphis in the late ’60s and were blessed with five children: Todd, Cheryle, Craig, Michelle, and Gaius.
When 1972 arrived, Earnestine and Charles settled into a new house in the Memphis community called Cherokee. With the arrival of spring flowers, Flora Rodgers asked Earnestine to organize an Easter program for church. Flora’s husband, Jonathan, was not only the pastor, he was Earnie’s brother. So, sister went right to work! However, when Earnestine could not find a proper Easter play in local bookstores, she was forced to write the narrative herself. As for music, a miracle happened. While seated alone in her bedroom preparing for a church rehearsal, Earnestine opened her mouth to read Bible verses John 3:16-17. The first verse poured from her in the flourish of a symphonic melody. When she tried to read the second verse aloud, the spoken words hurtled through the air in the spirit of a sacred song. She told a news reporter once, “I was singing the scripture and it was not of my own volition.”
The mysterious unfolding of melodies rendered her speechless. A church pianist advised her to follow the music saying, “If God has given you two verses, surely he can give you a whole song.” She agreed. And for the past 40 years, Earnestine has turned her ear toward Heaven. She uses mathematical symbols to convey the feeling of the music. Then she hires a musician to translate her symbols into a symphonic score. While her work has been featured before crowds in New York, Chicago, and Europe, no Memphis orchestra has ever performed Earnestine Robinson’s music until this year. This weekend, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra with the National Civil Rights Museum will debut Earnestine Robinson’s Harriet Tubman at the Cannon Center. The three-part oratorio explores Harriet Tubman’s birth into slavery, her journey on the Underground Railroad, and her joy and celebration of freedom in the aftermath of slavery.
Years ago, when Earnestine and her husband visited Memphis churches, colleges, and concert halls encouraging the local community to feature her work, doors were slammed in their faces. She asked God to explain the rejection and in the stillness of that moment she heard God say, “Your vision is too small.” It was then that Earnestine began to dream big. She prayed for national and international stages. This seed of faith reaped a great harvest as her music has now been featured at Carnegie Hall, numerous times.
Carnegie conductor, Jonathan Griffith, once explained the soul of Robinson’s music. He told her, “Your use of repetition gives it a gospel feel. … Your harmonies and rhythms are more like jazz. And somehow, you bring it all together under a classical format.”
Get ready for Earnestine Robinson’s world debut of the Harriet Tubman oratorio. Experience her BIG DREAM in BIG MEMPHIS at the Cannon Center on February 11th.
Alice Faye Duncan is the author of Coretta’s Journey, Traveling Shoes, and Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop. She can be reached at alicefayeduncan.com. Purchase Harriet Tubman tickets online from the NCRM at civilrightsmuseum.org.
