ADC43A39-BD5D-4D4B-BC9D-B7A2FEF247F5
| ID | ADC43A39-BD5D-4D4B-BC9D-B7A2FEF247F5 |
|---|---|
| Titlecode | R00078 |
| Title Name | Alabama Landscape |
| Marketing Copy | (not set) |
| Instrumentation | Bass-Baritone Solo: 3.2+EH.2+BCl.2+Cbsn: 4.3.3.1: Timp.Perc(2): Str |
| Commission | Commissioned by Columbus (IN) Pro Musica |
| Dedication | (not set) |
| Program Notes | Alabama Landscape is a setting of a startling poem, by Indianapolis author Mari Evans, which had been written as an angry response to the legal system's failure to punish acts of alleged police brutality. --Dan McKinley, The Republic, Columbus, IN, Wednesday 13 February 1991. Alabama Landscape, by Mari Evans See the ancient underbrush the disciplined entanglement wild welt of trees and gullies traps of mud and broken branch the hairline brook, the secret water see the stirring, see him coming modulating thru the silence leaping sinkholes, torn confusion buckling knees then grace regained he ducks and dodges Black man running claiming Freedom thru the ageless sun and shadow vanishes from sight he is at once both Past and Present, history repeated history relearned. History relived.. the Present savagely contrived, the Past still swollen, still unhealed and All transition merely language. What was tar, and rope, and flame, was rape and scourge is magnum now, is unrelenting chokehole Sanctioned lynchings Still Orgasmic. The time is surely near when we reluctantly have learned what lessons time intends to teach And such intransigence as now is veiled and hid we will release When "for their thousand blows" return a thousand ten However, unannounced, the Truth is clear: Until we stand, until we act the murders, the oppression still the unabated war we seem unable to define goes on Black man running thru the ageless sun and shadow Vulnerable ....still unavenged History repeated past all logic Who is it bides the time and why? And for how long? There will be no one left, for ovens.... |
| Title Brand | 2 |
| Year Composed | 1990 |
| Copyright Number | (not set) |
| Copyright Year | (not set) |
| Duration | 14 |
| Ensemble Size | 13 |
| Date Created | 2008-10-31 20:31:20.000000 |
| Date Updated | 2025-09-30 20:31:20 |
| Inhouse Note | (not set) |
| Bsc Code | (not set) |
| Text Author | Text by Mari Evans |
| Premier Performance Memo | (not set) |
| Recording Credits | Recorded by the Prague Radio Symphony on Troy 431 |
| Review | "Alabama Landscape is an impressive success....In his music, Baker allows such rage to have chilling effect, but instead of emphasizing the poem's violence, he chooses to focus on the continuing quest for freedom." --Dan McKinley, The Republic, Columbus, IN, <BR><BR> "Alabama Landscape is and effective, honestly expressed setting of a poem by Indianapolis writer Mari Evans....Baker's music underscores Evans' poetry very much the way film music gives a drama atmospheric support....The orchestration has a clarity to it, a preponderant harshness reflective of the poem's message, but also doses of Baker's sweetness, passages that sing of his people and his love and fear for them." <BR>-- Peter Jacobi, The Herald-Times |
| Awards | (not set) |
| Title Category | 12 |
| Title Movements | (not set) |
| Title Grade | (not set) |
| Set Series ID | (not set) |
| Title Instrument Category Text | Low Voice |
| Title Sub Category Text | (not set) |
| Title Sub Category | 55 |
| Title Instrument Header | 74 |
| Title Grade Text | (not set) |
| Clean Url | alabama-landscape-r00078 |