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Grandmother
Song
by Brent Michael Davids
Released Fall 2002
Ordering
information:
Score and parts: $50.00 (HL04002005)
Conductor score: $5.00 (HL04002006) |
Grandmother Song is an introduction
to the Mohican tradition of “sung syllables”
or what Native Americans call “vocables.”
Combining them with traditional wood flute songs, composer
Brent Michael Davids offers a fresh look at the sound
of Native American songs. Band instruments are performed
less as musical instruments and more as talking sticks,
singing reeds, rustling winds and shooting thunder.
Through this ballad, performers are given the materials
to understand how Native Americans celebrate the world
around them through the blending of words and song.
About the Composer
Brent Michael Davids is a young composer whose music
moves between the worlds of the Kronos Quartet, Joffrey
Ballet and Native American Song. Mr. Davids, a member
of the Mohican Nation, is an internationally recognized
Composer whose music features elements of Native American
tribal music combined with Western compositional techniques.
Davids has composed for very different ensembles and
genres demonstrating his skill and versatility attained
from his classical training, and often uses traditional
Native American instruments of his own design in his
compositions, including flutes made of quartz crystal.
In addition to extensive performances
of his works in the US and abroad by the Kronos Quartet
(The Singing Woods, ‘94; Turtle People, ‘95;
Native American National Anthem, ‘96); the Joffrey
Ballet (Moon of the Falling Leaves, ‘91), and
the National Symphony Orchestra (Canyon Sunrise, ‘95),
Davids has received numerous awards from organizations
such as the NEA, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, the Rockefeller
Foundation, and the Sundance Institute.
Davids holds a Bachelor degree
and Master degree in composition from Northern Illinois
University and Arizona State University respectively.
Recently, Davids was invited to be one of six composers
invited to Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute
Film Lab (1998) where he created music for Sherman Alexie’s
film “Indian Killer” and received shouting
applause for the score, and he was featured on a segment
of “CBS Sunday Morning” (1998) with Charles
Osgood and Eugenia Zuckerman. Davids recent collaboration
with Joe Myers has resulted in a number of new instrumental
songs for an all Quartz Crystal Flute and Guitar CD
called “Joe & the Blue Butterfly” (1998).
Davids is currently working on the first authentically
created American Indian opera -- in the entire history
of opera -- called "The Trial of Standing Bear"
with librettist Marcie Rendon (Anishinabe).
Composer Brent Michael Davids plays the tuba during a
rehearsal of "Grandmother Song" at Centennial Middle School in Minneapolis.
Instrumentation
1-Conductor
6-Voice
6-Flute
2-Oboe
2-Bassoon
6-B flat clarinet 1
6-B flat clarinet 2
2-B flat bass clarinet
2-E flat alto saxophone 1
2-E flat alto saxophone 2
2-B flat tenor saxophone
1-E flat baritone saxophone |
4-B
flat trumpet 1
4-B flat trumpet 2
4-F horn
4-Trombone
2-Baritone B.C.
2-Baritone T.C.
4-Tuba
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1-Percussion 1: bass drum
2-Percussion 2: triangle
1-Percussion 3: suspended cymbal/orchestra bells
1-Vibraphone
1-Timpani
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