Harp; Percussion
(Performance Score)
SKU: HL.233157
For Harp and
Percussion. Composed
by John Luther Adams.
Music Sales America.
Classical. Score.
Composed 2017. Duration
960 seconds. Chester
Music #CH85965. Published
by Chester Music
(HL.233157).
9.25x12.0x0.13
inches.
Includes
two copies of the
performance score These
pieces are inspired by
the music and spirit of
the Athabascan people of
Alaska's boreal forest.
The first and third
dances are based on songs
by Joe Beetus, a Koyukon
elder from the village of
Huslia. The second dance
is based on a short
traditional song of the
Dena'ing people of the
Kenai Peninsula, as
remembered by the late
Peter Kalifornsky and
transcribed by the late
Thomas F. Johnston. In
their original setting
these melodies would be
sung in unison, with no
harmony or counterpoint.
Working as a composer in
the Western tradition, I
have extended and
transformed them in many
ways. I have 'borrowed'
and 'set' these melodies
with permission and with
the hope that my
treatment of them conveys
my profound respect for
their origins. The second
and third pieces are
derived from my setting
of poems by Adeline Peter
Raboff written in the
dialect of her Gwich'in
people, who inhabit the
country from Arctic
Village to Old Crow. I
offer this music as a
gesture of respect to the
first peoples of the
Northern Interior and the
Kenai Peninsula. - John
Luther Adams.