John D. McDonald

Guitar

Composer's Note:

Based on "Grandmother's Lullaby," this piece is a little fantasy on a tune that was passed from Frances Goose to her granddaughter Joan Swallow. Joan is a Southern Cheyenne woman from Geary, Oklahoma, and is known as a singer who performs at revivals, funerals, & church services. Her work has been transcribed and discussed by Virginia Giglio in Southern Cheyenne Women's Songs (University of Oklahoma Press, 1994).

"Grandmother's Lullaby" is borrowed, changed, and harmonized in this solo guitar lullaby, but the melody hopefully remains remarkable in its use of only four tones. An introduction and conclusion (borrowed from a manuscript of mine that Aaron Larget-Caplan saw framed and hanging above the photographer Susan Wilson's sink) formalize the setting. The title, a free translation of part of the Cheyenne lullaby text, suggests the "isolation of the baby in a peaceful place of sleep within the surrounding, waking world." (Giglio, p.46). The guitar chords I chose to decorate the tune perhaps reveal the discomforts and potential threats of the waking outside world, and should awaken (albeit gently) our own fears and feelings of isolation.

I am honored to offer this lullaby to Aaron Larget-Caplan as part of his guitar lullaby project.