Instrumentation: Alto sax and percussion (5 temple blocks, 2 toms (low/high) snare drum Bongo (low/high) and vibraphone
Duration: 10:00
Commission: Consortium of Bent Frequency Duo Projects and saxophonists Kevin Norton, Nicole M. Roman and Drew Whiting
Premiere: 05/07/2023, Florence Kopleff Recital Hall, Georgia State University
Performers: Jan Baker Berry (sax) and Stuart Gerber (percussion) of Bent Frequency Duo Projecct
Program Note
Of Wells and Springs was commissioned in consortium with the lead Bent Frequency Duo Project of saxophonist Jan Baker Berry and percussionist Stuart Gerber and saxophonists Nicole M. Roman, Kevin Norton and Drew Whiting. Of Wells and Springs takes its title (and spelling of drouth) from environmental activist, writer and farmer Wendell Berry’s poem, Water . Drawn from the series Farming: A Handbook, it tells of a terrible drouth, of the narrator’s mother waiting for men to bring water from distant springs, of his fear of recurring drought and of his ‘love of wells and springs.’ He closes the poem with the line ‘My sweetness is to wake in the night after days of dry heat, hearing the rain.’ I have responded through my music to the experiences that Berry details so vividly – the fear and anguish that drouth precipitates, thejoy of the coming of rain, the worry of renewed dry spells, the relief of hearing rain. And, I have added to that the increasing severity of drouths and the obliterating floods that have become devastatingly common. Of Wells and Springs was premiered by the Bent Frequency Duo at Georgia State University on 5/7/2023. For more information, visit www.judithshatin.com.