Description

"In 1984 I was very fortunate to visit Uganda, where a dream maker made me a beautiful drum with a snakeskin head. I'll never forget sitting in the place to come home and seeing by chance the baggage handlers loading my drum with incredible respect and care. The drum to them is a living spirit.

The poems I set are a celebration of how that spirit is brought to life. The piece enacts the ritual of constructing the drum, whose component parts are drawn from the surrounding nature - a nature that gives of itself almost sacrificially. We hear how the goat is killed for its skin, how the tree, which bleeds cedar-dark when cut, bestows the drum's body, and how the sticks and rattles are taken, all to begin a new life as companions to the gods, music and the dance." Bob Chilcott

Ensemble Photos

Cora Voce. Lindsey Delmarter, March 2024, Mason UMC, Tacoma, WA