BLUE RIDGE AIRS I (1988) solo piano, 17 min. In Blue Ridge Airs I, I have incorporated songs of the Southern Appalachians which were passed down through the oral tradition before the days of radio and recording. Among the songs included are "Charmin' Betsy," "East Virginny," "Groundhog" and "Pretty Saro." The overall shape of the work was developed from "Poor Omie Wise," a North Carolina ballad based on the 1808 murder of a young woman drowned by her lover. In this piece the piano becomes the singer and storyteller. Rather than repeating verses to draw out a ballad, the piano conveys the action through constant variation, development, fragmentation and overlapping. Nonsense songs are translated into improvisatory gestures. The strumming of the banjo and the drone of the Appalachian dulcimer accompany several melodies. Even a summer bird of the region, the indigo bunting, finds its way into the texture. Blue Ridge Airs I is not simply a setting of songs or a mirroring of sounds, however; above all, it is a landscape. The piece was premiered by Jeffrey Kahane at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A., which commissioned it. Recorded by Gregory McCallum on Southern Quilt (MSR Classics). |
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