Volume 28 Issue 4 | February - March 2023

The Lakota Music Project
South Dakota Symphony Orchestra; Delta
David Gier
Innova 1 081 (innova.mu)
! This highly
creative project is a
stunning combination
of material
composed by six
gifted Indigenous
Americans of
the Lakota Sioux
nation featuring
the eminent South Dakota Symphony under
the musical direction of Delta David Gier.
The Lakota Project is a brilliantly constructed
collection of music specifically written and
designed to dissolve the walls between the
Lakota peoples and their horrific history
of abuse and near genocide at the hands
of European settlers. The music itself was
created in an atmosphere of trust and open
communication and is a pure, resplendent
boon to the process of reconciliation.
Black Hills Olowan by Brent Michael
Davids features the Creekside Singers
dynamic; mystical motifs depict the incredible
power of natural forces and the ensemble’s
magnificent voices serve to intensify
the magic. The composition and arrangement
here are nothing short of superb, and
awash with emotional and musical gravitas –
chaos and destruction, and then rebuilding.
Also exceptional is the six-movement,
Victory Songs (Wakétgli olówan) by Jerod
Impichchachaaha’ Tate, which fluidly moves
the listener through time and history – from
the beginning of the world to the horrific
murder of Sitting Bull. Stephen L. Bryant’s
sonorous voice digs deep into the soul, at
once elevating us up into etheric dimensions
and plunging us back down into the grief and
horror of one group of the human race determined
to exterminate another.
Of particular delight is Desert Wind by
guitarist Jeffrey Paul. Paul drags us into the
present time and place with his cheeky,
relentless electric guitar, soothed by Robert
Erhard and Sharon Mautner-Rodgers on
cellos and the Creekside Singers. The closing
track is (ironically) John Newton’s 1772
Christian hymn, Amazing Grace. Arranged
by Theodore Wiprud, this song celebrates a
transformation that speaks to the oneness of
all… a radiant and much needed message in
our present world.
Lesley Mitchell-Clarke
American Stories
Anthony McGill; Pacifica Quartet
Cedille CDR 90000 216
(cedillerecords.org)
! This is a great
recording. What is
not to like here? The
Pacifica quartet are
excellent, Anthony
McGill turns the
clarinet into a
beautiful distinct
voice, and the
stories? Well, let’s talk.
Leaving aside the question of whether
music can function as narrative, let’s at least
say that while American Stories doesn’t push
the inclusion-and-equity button too hard,
it includes equally compelling tales from
a variety of voices. Richard Danielpour’s
threnody Four Angels reflects on the aching
sorrow caused by the Birmingham church
bombing now almost 60 years in the past. The
angels are the four young girls who lost their
lives to the hatred of a racist. The piece derives
real beauty from that reflection and opens
our hearts to hope. Despicable acts seem to
be part of the curse of humanity, and courage
and hope two blessings we require in order
to persist. Commissioned by McGill in early
2020, it was premiered online in 2021.
The longest and most entertaining work is the
final one, Valerie Coleman’s Shotgun Houses.
Coleman grew up in West Louisville, Kentucky
as did the subject of the piece. Muhammed Ali’s
early life and rise to prominence as an African
American hero is depicted in three movements:
the first, with the same title as the entire work,
describes the neighbourhood itself, the architecture
of poverty celebrated for the strength of
the inhabitants. Grand Avenue is one of those
streets, notably Ali’s home address when he
was still Cassius Clay and before his Olympic
triumph in Rome 1960. In this last movement
Coleman pencil strokes Ali at the speed
bag, on a flight (his first ever) to Rome, and
in the ring for three rounds on his way to the
gold medal, in under seven minutes; the entire
work lasts about 18. I hope the composer at
least considers whether it might be expanded,
perhaps even with an epilogue to honour Ali’s
later years as an activist, and his struggle with
Parkinson’s disease.
Between these are two other great pieces:
High Sierra Sonata by Ben Shirley and James
Lee III’s Clarinet Quintet. More tone poem
than narrative, Shirley’s piece is an honest
response to the dynamic beauty of the
American southwest, in American vernacular
style, if that means anything. Lee has a
heavier task, addressing the treatment of the
Indigenous peoples who were cheated out of
promised territory in the Dakotas. Made me
think of a half-finished monument to Crazy
Horse that sits near Mount Rushmore. Both
pieces substantially add to a growing genre:
the clarinet quintet.
Max Christie
Invocation
Duo Kermani-Gentili
Pro Classics 7025
(duo-kermani-gentili.com/en/cd)
! Is music by
women composers
like the dark matter
of the musical
universe: influential,
yet somehow
undetectable by
current means?
Try again.
Invocation sheds light on this element,
featuring works for clarinet and piano.
The duo of clarinetist Kymia Kermani and
pianist Alba Gentili-Tedeschi have focused
on European composers, all women, most
presenting (I would argue) mid-20th-century
style. An exception is the first composer
featured, Marie Clémence de Grandval (1823-
1907), whose Deux Pièces include the title
track for the disc. Apart from her importance
as an established female composer in
the 19th century, I don’t think hers was the
strongest opening play; tuneful and sweet,
a bit like Adolph Adam, but less observed;
de Grandval was kind enough NOT to write
Minuit Chretien.
A selection of well-performed miniatures,
there are 27 separate tracks through
its 58 minutes. It’s as if the composers were
afflicted by modesty. I feel most compelled
by the music of Holocaust escapee Ursula
Mamlock’s Rückblick, in Erinnerungan die
Reichspogromnacht 9. November 1938, a
brief but harrowing depiction of her family’s
flight from Berlin in the wake of Kristallnacht.
The tracks are linked by short interludes
by Barbara Heller (b.1936). Her Luftspuren
are lovely enigmatic epigrams that serve as a
“promenade” between the other works.
Composition dates are absent in the jacket
material, but with help from their publicist
I learned Polish composer Krystyna
Moszumańska-Nazar, who studied composition
at the same school as Krzysztof
Penderecki, quite possibly a bit earlier, was
nine years his senior. Isn’t it wonderful to
imagine that her clever (and also earlier)
Three Miniatures for Clarinet and Piano
influenced the much more celebrated man
whose work of the same title was published
in 1959? Now there’s some dark matter!
Max Christie
60 | February & March, 2023 thewholenote.com