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This is the first song in the Provision Series- "Where All Rivers Begin". Proceeds from this single will go to the Red Cross proceeds from sales on cd baby will go not only to the Red Cross, but also to Lafayette Urban Ministry
Enjoy the following video featuring excerpts from "where all rivers begin"
The Charity
The American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton in 1881. Its mission evolved from providing relief at war time to providing relief in times of disaster. As I type this in July of 2011, the city of Joplin in my home state of Missouri is still recovering from a devastating tornado. As I watched the news coverage of the aftermath, it was impossible to ignore the presence of the Red Cross throughout the city. In times of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and fire, the Red Cross simply shows up and starts providing relief.
The Song
The consideration for even trying a song like this came from my teacher and friend Philip Aaberg, after a lesson regarding the nature of water in music, and how to find my own way of expressing the twists and turns taken by the creek that cuts through our property. This song was composed after spending some time earlier this spring walking along that creek. That walk became the inspiration for the title "where all rivers begin"; our fairly calm creek (which is named Little Flint Creek, probably because of its stone bed) joins another creek (Flint Creek), which empties into the Wabash River, which in turn empties into the Ohio River, and the Ohio goes into the Mississippi, which heads to the gulf of Mexico. I spent time thinking how, in theory, water that is unassumingly passing through our property every day can lead to the ocean.
And this thought gave metaphorical inspiration to the concept of the Provision series- that one small act can join with others and lead to a lot of good.
Musically, there are three pretty distinct movements to the song (plus one pretty brief, but intense movement), owing a bit to the physical properties of the creek. The first part is fairly calm and dark, just as the creek is as it enters our property. The second movement is a little more active and brighter, as the water picks up a little speed and crosses into the sunlight. Then the water drops into what I can only describe as a very large, stone bottomed pool; a few years back, the creek flooded, and after the water level returned to normal, we had this new feature, about ten feet around and five feet deep (which means we have a very small, but beautiful, waterfall in our creek!). The music reflects this tumult with a lot of Steve Reich-inspired patterns. Then the music, as well as the creek, emerges from the pool and heads slowly back into the dark, and off our property.
