Commissioned by Justin Rollefson; Premiered January 15, 2019
INSTRUMENTATION
piano, cello, and alto/tenor saxophone
MOVEMENTS
- Raise
- Aberration I
- Aberration II
- Aberration III
- Aberration IV
- Aberration V
- Descent
- Aberration IV
PROGRAM NOTE
As a Chickasaw classical composer, I consider myself a modern impressionist, and Snake Oil is a work that reflects American Indian culture with a high level of abstraction. It is based upon two ancient snake dance songs from the Chickasaw and Seminole tradition and is presented in different sections, referred to as Aberrations (deviations).
Snake Oil was a wonderful adventure for me to compose. I dove into the world of colors and gestures available with piano, cello and saxophone and had a complete field trip! I did encode a lot of emotional and psychological ideas about life and relationship; however, a lot of this work was inspired by my very young son, Heloha. His name means thunder in the Chickasaw language. Heloha is a beautiful young man who is filled with fabulous curiosity, excitement and wit.
— Jerod Impichcha̱achaahaꞌ Tate
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.