Spring 2018 LOCALadk Magazine 21
LOCALadk
Stephanie says that Pete created a choral work so people would
think about the relationship between man and nature, with the
human voice being a representation of the human. As to why the
movements of the composition are mostly sung in Mohawk she says,
"English as a voice has only been here a couple hundred years. The
voices that those trees would have heard were the voices of the Mo -
hawk." She said she found that feature of the installation particular-
ly compelling and appreciated Pete "acknowledging that those are
the human sounds and words that would have been here for thou-
sands of years."
Pete says he worked with a choir from Philadelphia, as opposed
to Mohawk singers, because, "As a Western composer it would be
foolish and perhaps inappropriate for me to tr y and make a Mohawk
piece." He added, "I am schooled in a ver y different tradition, and
the best I felt I could do was make my own creative responses in my
own musical language – a Western piece inspired by the land itself
and by the Mohawk relationship with nature."
