John Adams

Five Athabascan Dances

John Luther Adams' Five Athabascan Dances for Harp and Percussion. Duration: 16 minutes.

'These pieces are inspired by the music and spirit of the Athabascan people of Alaska's boreal forest.

The first and third dances are based on songs by Joe Beetus, a Koyukon elder from the village of Huslia.

The second dance is based on a short traditional song of the Dena'ing people of the Kenai Peninsula, as remembered by the late Peter Kalifornsky and transcribed by the late Thomas F. Johnston.

In their original setting these melodies would be sung in unison, with no harmony or counterpoint. Working as a composer in the Western tradition, I have extended and transformed them in many ways.

I have 'borrowed' and 'set' these melodies with permission and with the hope that my treatment of them conveys my profound respect for their origins.

The second and third pieces are derived from my setting of poems by Adeline Peter Raboff written in the dialect of her Gwich'in people, who inhabit the country from Arctic Village to Old Crow.

I offer this music as a gesture of respect to the first peoples of the Northern Interior and the Kenai Peninsula. ' - John Luther Adams