Work
Generation after generation (septets: bass clarinet, 2 percussion, guitar, piano, violin, cello)
by Robert Davidson (2008)
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Score
Generation after generation : for ensemble and pre-recorded CD / Robert Davidson.
Library shelf no. 785.3417/DAV 3 [Available for loan]
Display all products featuring this work (1 more)
Work Overview
Composed for Newspeak Ensemble in New York for performance on the 2008 US Election night. The ensemble wanted a piece using Sarah Palin's voice, but I thought she was so good at satirising herself that I would seek a different angle on the woman who came scarily close to vice presidency. There were reports of Ms Palin subscribing to views such as creationism, in which the Earth is believed to be 6000 years old and the 6-day creation story in Genesis is taken literally. I remembered a particularly zealous creationist I used to meet from time to time growing up in Brisbane (mostly when he would visit my school) in the '80s. He has gone on to bigger things, moving from Brisbane to Kentucky to found and direct a $30 million "Creation Museum" in which displays depict sauropods boarding Noah's Ark as scientific fact. His voice is my connection to the US election, and various angled portraits are made of Mr Ham through his recorded speech, treated as melody in various settings.
Work Details
Year: 2008
Instrumentation: Bass clarinet, cello, violin, drums, electric guitar, percussion, piano, bass (track), plus pre-recorded CD.
Difficulty: Advanced
The composer cites the following as influences on the work: Martin Wesley-Smith, Creationism, Sarah Palin, US politics, Barack Obama, speech-melody music, polystylism, country, rockabilly, house, mambo, tango, fundamentalism, Brisbane, Queensland, Christianity, evolution, education, child abuse, spoken word, Scott Johnson, Michael Daugherty, Leon Janacek, Frank Zappa, Red Symons, Hermeto Pascoal, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Jason Moran, Christopher O'Riley
Subjects
- Has as subject/About: Satire
Performances of this work
21 Oct 2009: at Corridors of Power (Chapel off Chapel). Featuring Topology.
4 Nov 08: Election Night Party, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, New York, New York, USA
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