Dark Holler draws on American roots music recordings, carrying the listener on a journey across the U.S. South. The piece incorporates a number of styles, including fiddle tunes, African American fife and drum music from the Mississippi delta, Appalachian ballad singing, and banjo songs. Garner weaves these musical references with his own musical language, placing the source material in new contexts in each movement. “Traveler” depicts the loss of innocence through a fiddle tune recorded in New Mexico in 1952. In “Wandering Boy,” the cello sings a ballad- based on a recording of the same name by Kentuckian Roscoe Holcombe- that reflects on the first movement. “Devil’s Dream” uses a fiddle recording by Virginia musician Hobart Smith to present a turbulent musical narrative that culminates in a triumphant version of Smith’s fiddle tune, which has been developed over the course of the movement. The “Interlude” provides a brief moment of rest and reflection, while foreshadowing material in the next movement. “New Railroad” is the most capricious movement, juggling musical elements from recordings of African American banjo and fife-and-drum traditions from Mississippi. Finally, the piece culminates in an expansive presentation of the song “Dark Holler” as preserved on a recording of North Carolina balladeer Clarence Ashley. Echoes of earlier narratives are recalled in the final, weary ritardando played by double bass and bass drum. David Kirkland Garner writes music, plays banjo, studies fiddle, listens to jazz, hears everything, but suspects he knows nothing. Encompassing chamber, large ensemble, electroacoustic, and vocal works, his music reconfigures past sounds- from Bach to minimalism to bluegrass- into new sonic shapes and directions. He seeks to make time and history audible, particularly through an exploration of archival recordings documenting the musical traditions of the US South.
Artists
Alex Sopp (flute), Hideaki Aomori (clarinet), C.J. Camerieri (trumpet), Jamie Keesecker (horn), Rob Moose (violin), Sarah Griffin (violin), Nadia Sirota (viola), Clarice Jensen (cello), Shawn Conley (double bass), Cameron Britt (percussion), Shawn Galvin (percussion), Timothy Hambourger (piano), Jacquelyn Bartlett (harp)
Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant
