PROGRAM NOTES & INSTRUMENTATION
Voices From The Water is a symphonic overture commissioned by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to mark the bicentennial celebration of the Corps of Discovery's arrival in present-day Clark County Washington. To this end, the composer utilizes folk music of Native American tribes indigenuos to the state of Washington. The title originates from the text Spirit of the First People: Native American Music Traditions in Washington State (University of Washington Press, 1999), which states that travelers in the region arrived for gatherings by canoes and were greeted by songs of welcome from the shore. "Canoes were transformed into drums as those on the shore pounded a rhythm with oars to accompany their song".

Voices From The Water depicts the Lewis and Clark expedition in the role of guests traveling (via canoes) down the Columbia River while Native Americans greet them with music. The introduction of the overture utilizes Nootka and Quileute Canoe Song rhythms and intervals that, according to Native American traditions, suggest the motion of the canoes over the water and people in motion. The introduction yields to a lively Makah Kwekwasa Dance, then gives way to a layered presentation of an Eagle Song of Yakima, Umatilla, and Nez Perce origins. This section of the composition elicits the transformation of canoes and oars into percussion instruments, including frame drums, rute sticks, and a large rainstick. Simultaneously, the string section strikes their strings wiht the wood portion of the bows and the basses tap the body of their instruments. The transition to the slower, peaceful middle section of the work includes a quote from the composer's recent Corps of Discovery Symphony composed for the Oregon Symphony and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. The Lewis and Clark motive is intoned in the brass and represents the only time that a musical reference other than that of Native American origins influences the overture. The middle section also incorporates portions of the Potlatch ceremony that serves to underscore the peaceful relations between the Lewis and Clark expedition and the Native Americans.

Voices From The Water employs the following instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 B-flat clarinets (2nd doubles bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 trumpets in C, 2 trombones, tuba, timapani, 2 percussion (see battery below), piano, harp, and strings (14, 12, 10, 8, 6 recommended).

The percussion battery is employed as follows: Player 1 - xylophone, large tam-tam, large rain stick, sizzle cymbal, suspended cymbal, nut-shell rattle, and glockenspiel. Player 2 - crotales, claves, suspended cymbal, sizzle cymbal, rototoms, triangle, and orchestral sleigh bells.

HISTORY
The 10-minute Voices From the Water overture was commissioned by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Salvador Brotons and was recorded by Robert Ian Winstin and the Czech Philharmonic as part of the 12th installment of ERM Media's Masterworks of the New Era series. (ERM-6827).

Voices From The Water
(9'40" - 13.4MB)