Healing Waters (Band Gr. 4.5)

Taking its inspiration from the waters of the Straight River, which flows through the community of Owatonna, Healing Waters provides listeners an extraordinary musical journey that weaves the hymn tune Shall We Gather at the River? and the melody We Shall Overcome together with original music that leads toward its dramatic, yet pensive ending.

Genre: Band | # of Players: Standard
Series: Diamond Band Series
Level: 4.5 | Duration: 8:15

Instrumentation
Piccolo
Flute 1
Flute 2
Oboe
Bassoon
B-flat Clarinet 1
B-flat Clarinet 2
B-flat Clarinet 3
Bas Clarinet
Alto Saxophone 1
Alto Saxophone 2
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone

B-flat Trumpet 1
B-flat Trumpet 2
B-flat Trumpet 3
F Horn 1
F Horn 2
Trombone 1
Trombone 2
Euphonium
Baritone T.C.
Tuba

Timpani [4 drums]
Glockenspiel
Chimes/Vibraphone
Marimba [5- or 4.3-octave]

Percussion 1: Large Tom or Kick Drum, Snare Drum, Small Tam-Tam, Woodblock
Percussion 2: Bass Drum
Percussion 3: Suspended Cymbal, Triangle
Percussion 4: Large Tom or Kick Drum, Crash Cymbals, Large Tam-Tam
Percussion 5: 4 Concert Toms, Slapstick, Wind Chimes, China Cymbal

Program Notes
In the early months of 2020, before 2020 really became 2020, I reached out to Pete Guenther and the Owatonna High School band program with the idea of collaborating on a new piece for wind band. In early conversations with Pete, we contemplated exploring, through music, the U.S./Dakota conflict that occurred during the 1860s, a conflict that saw many rural farming families lose their lives as well as the forced removal and mass execution of Native Americans - an extremely dark chapter in the history of Minnesota and America as a whole.

Like a river, though, the creative process took some unanticipated twists and turns. In May of 2020, the world was rocked with the death of George Floyd, just an hour away from Owatonna, in Minneapolis. And like many things in 2020, our musical collaboration took on a new direction - as a result of a Zoom meeting. Over cyberspace, the Owatonna band students, Pete, and I had a rich conversation about how music can express the extreme emotional roller coaster that life provides. From tumult and destruction to pain and confusion to healing and restoration, music can capture these things - and so can water.

Healing Waters takes its inspiration from the waters of the Straight River, which flows through the community of Owatonna. According to legend, the Dakota Princess Owatonna was ill and near death, and found the waters of the river were able to save her life. The music begins with violent water, destructive water, tumultuous water and introduces a melodic theme - we’ll call it the river theme - that will be transformed throughout the piece. The rhythmic and dynamic intensity is passed throughout the sections of the band and eventually dissipates, leading us into the second section.

As the tempo slows, we explore how water has the ability to become still, reflecting, and eventually frozen. Our river theme becomes transformed through the technique of melodic inversion, where the notes of the melody literally get flipped upside down (though in this case, I also decided to have the notes presented backwards as well). The music and the water seek to express feelings of confusion and pain, ultimately releasing the mounting tension into our third and final section of the piece.

The river resumes its flow and momentum, but this time it is combined with the hymn tune, Shall We Gather at the River?, and the emotions of the music turn toward brightness and hopefulness. And then, the majestic horns introduce the monumental melody, We Shall Overcome, a tune that seeks to dismantle systemic racism and oppression, and it begins to soar over that river. The melodies we have heard throughout the piece come together and we arrive at a dramatic climax to the music. But ultimately, we are left wondering if we have truly overcome, or is there still overcoming left to do? Have we been healed or is there healing still left to do?

These are important questions and emotions that we have felt so viscerally over the last year - and music gives us the vocabulary to articulate these emotions in ways that words so often cannot. I fervently hope that we can gather at the river, at the healing waters.

– C.H.