4 trumpets, 2 horns, 2 trombones, 2 euphonia, 2 tubas, 4 percussion
Another class project, though this time for American Protest Literature. This was never performed except for a recording similar to this one. The instrumentation is also not entirely realistic: two choruses, each containing two trumpets, horn, trombone, euphonium, tuba, and two percussion: sixteen players. The piece attempts to paint a picture of black/white racism in the US, though it's somewhat idealized. I'll let you make your own conclusions, but one chorus represents whites and the other represents blacks. They are heard on different channels, like Bytes, so I recommend either widely spacing your speakers or wearing good headphones. I tried to make this piece self-explanatory by titling the movements suggestively.
This is NOT a theme and variations on "America". There are many themes involved, and most are derived from "America", but this is not always obvious. For example, a certain rhythmic pattern represents the phrase "let freedom ring", though one probably wouldn't notice it. Another such motif is the melodic fragment F F G, or any transposition of it, which I used to build many of the other themes. The title, incidentally, was inspired by Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" where he argues that the benefits of the Declaration of Independence were not applied to the slaves. The center of my emphasis on racism, though, is the second movement, Execution and Dance. Reading Ida B. Wells's "Southern Horrors" is nothing compared to seeing the actual images from a lynching. I'd recommend reading Wells's pamphlet, or at least the part of it I read (only the first chapter, I believe, was in the sourcebook), if you take pride in America's history.
Listen to Your Country, 'Tis of Thee - I - God Save King Cotton(right-click to download)
Listen to Your Country, 'Tis of Thee - II - Execution and Dance (right-click to download)
Listen to Your Country, 'Tis of Thee - III - Your Country, 'Tis of Me (right-click to download)
Listen to Your Country, 'Tis of Thee - IV - The Perfectly Standard Freedom Blues (right-click to download)
Listen to Your Country, 'Tis of Thee - V - Holy War and the Mourning After (right-click to download)
Listen to Your Country, 'Tis of Thee - VI - Let Freedom Rag (right-click to download)
Listen to Your Country, 'Tis of Thee - VII - Finale (right-click to download)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment