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Work

Generation after generation (quintets: saxophone, piano, violin, viola, double bass with pre-recorded sound)

by Robert Davidson (2008)

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Generation after generation

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Score

Generation after generation / Robert Davidson

Library shelf no. 785.2415/DAV 4 [Available for loan]

Generation after generation

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Parts

Generation after generation / Robert Davidson

Version: This product features the Septets: Bass clarinet, 2 percussion, guitar, piano, violin, cello version of this work

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: Alto/soprano saxophone, violin, viola, double bass, piano, audio track (played on CD).

Duration: 8 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — Synchronised with recorded speech

Dedication note: Dedicated to David Little and Eileen Mack

Commission note: Commissioned by Newspeak Ensemble.

First performance: 4 Nov 08. Election Night Party, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, New York, New York, USA

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

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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