Judith Shatin

Alto Saxophone and Percussion

Composer's Note:

Collaboration and instrumental exploration with performers are central to my compositional process. We often begin by chatting about ideas, both musical and personal. When Bent Frequency Duo and I first discussed this project, saxophonist Jan Baker mentioned that the topic of water was on her mind - ranging from its life-sustaining necessity to its potential for devastating floods. This immediately resonated with me. Like so many of us, I am deeply concerned about climate change and the increasing severity of drouth and flood cycles.

Of Wells and Springs takes its title (and spelling of drouth) from environmental activist, writer and farmer Wendell Berry’s poem, Water. Drawn from the series "Farming: A Handbook," it tells of a terrible drouth, of the narrator’s mother waiting for men to bring water from distant springs, of his fear of recurring drought and of his ‘love of wells and springs.’ He closes the poem with the line ‘My sweetness is to wake in the night after days of dry heat, hearing the rain.’

I have responded through my music to the experiences that Berry details so vividly – the fear and anguish that drouth precipitates, the joy of the coming of rain, the worry of renewed dry spells, the relief of hearing rain. And, I have added to that both the increasing severity of drouths and the obliterating floods that have also become devastatingly more common.

Of Wells and Springs was commissioned in consortium with the lead Bent Frequency Duo of saxophonist Jan Baker Berry and percussionist Stuart Gerber and saxophonists Nicole M. Roman, Kevin Norton and Drew Whiting.

Percussion Needed: 5 temple blocks, 2 Toms (Low and high), Snare drum, 2 Bongos (low/high), and Vibraphone.