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World Premiere of "Black River Suite" Features Six Area Performing Arts Groups in a Celebration of the Black River Watershed
On
May 6, the public was invited to witness the culmination of two years
of work with the world premiere performance of the "Black River Suite"
at Lorain County Community College's Stocker Center. The Suite was
commissioned to celebrate the history and geology of the Black River
watershed and is part of a multi-media piece called "Water Song: The
Story of the Canesadooharie." The project brought together professionals
from all quadrants of campus, who worked closely with local organizations
in creating a public performance that incorporated history, poetry,
photography and art, with original music and dance.
The project, a partnership between Oberlin's Environmental Studies Program and Seventh Generation, a Lorain County-based environmental organization, was coordinated by Brad Masi, project coordinator for the Environmental Studies program. Primary project leaders included Masi; Joanne Erwin, associate professor and director of the Conservatory's Music Education program; Anna Rubin, associate professor of composition; Lynn Powell, poet; and Richard Anderson, professor of singing. Six area performing arts groups--the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra (NOYO), Ohio Dance Theatre, the MAD Factory, Choral Spectrum, Oberlin Choristers and the Firelands Association had a hand in creating this production.
Anna
Rubin outlines the evolution of the composition. "The piece unfolded
during a meeting among Joanne Erwin, Lynn Powell and Brad Masi, where
we discussed the Black River watershed. What are its most important
features? What do we most want to display about the watershed that will
be accessible to young people and adults? We examined some of Brad's
wonderful research documents. Gradually we decided that we wanted to
portray - through all aspects of the arts: music, literary and visual
arts - the history of the formation of the geography/geology of this
area that we call home. We wanted to provide a sense of the sweep of
geologic history as well as historical events. It's quite ambitious
to want to illustrate about 50 million years.
"Using Brad's environmental work, Lynne created a libretto, which was spoken as an introduction to parts of the performance and was interspersed within the movements of the piece. Richard Anderson served as narrator."
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CREATING THE "BLACK RIVER SUITE" FOR ORCHESTRA: How do you - through music - depict the gradual freezing of a world as the Glacial Age begins? How do you depict the thaw and the subsequent burgeoning of plants? Anna Rubin worked with award-winning poet Lynn Powell, and made use of a primary text and research material in working with area children to create the "Black River Suite" for orchestra, in five movements; one movement is a an electronic rap for voices and tape, performed by members of NOYO, Ohio Dance Theatre, the MAD Factory, Choral Spectrum and the Oberlin Choristers. THE
FIRST MOVEMENT: "The first narration sets up the geological formation of the area and the creation of the Great Lakes. This first movement includes the youth chorus; their text was written partly by the children with Lynn Powell's assistance. I was striving to create two things: a sense of the sweep of this history and a congenial setting for the children's chorus. "To create that 'sweep,' I worked with constant, somewhat whimsical rhythmic patterns, in keeping with the poetry of the children, along with flowing melodies." THE
SECOND MOVEMENT: "The second movement depicts the coming of the glaciers - without text - and within it I tried to write the coldest music I could, using big block chords, lots of brass, and only small melodic fragments. Gradually, the second movement gets softer and softer as I try to evoke the Glacial period." THE
THIRD MOVEMENT: "The third movement is the one movement that includes dance: the narration which precedes it describes the wonderful burgeoning of the plant world and the introduction of the indigenous peoples of the area. Musically, it is achieved as a gentle melodic section emphasizing flute and harp." THE
FOURTH MOVEMENT: "The fourth movement brings us right up to modern times. I composed a percussive rap for voices and tape that offers a delightful rhythmic text that, in a short space of a couple minutes, depicts the onslaught of machines and civilization. The taped percussive parts include sounds of industry and the modern world: drills, traffic, sirens, and four members of the NOYO provide the rapping." THE
FIFTH MOVEMENT: "The final movement sums up the piece with a gentle call to listeners to treasure and preserve this precious resource - the Black River watershed - and includes the voices of Choral Spectrum. The tone of this section is more solemn and at the same time, celebratory, making use of chorale-like sections, brass, fanfares and full orchestral chorale text." |