Over Salt River

Over Salt River, Tina Davidson (1994) 5'
for soprano, viola, and piano or soprano, English horn, and piano

Over Salt River was commissioned by the Newark Symphony Orchestras as part of the Meet the Composer "New Residencies" Program supported by major grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Ford Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., and the National Endowment for the Arts. The work is scored for full orchestra and soprano, and uses Joy Harjo’s “Eagle Poem."

Over Salt River is dedicated to my cousin, Henry Chance who died of AIDS in January 1995. I hadn't know Henry very well, and yet felt deeply effected by his passing. That summer, as I was in Utah, I reflected on all this. Henry had said, in his last days, that he felt he was slipping into the river of life. I lay by the river and looked up into the enormous mountains of Zion Canyon; even they were slowly being reduced by the wind and rain, ebbing and flowing in the natural earth cycle.

Joy Harjo's poem speaks so eloquently of the living and dying we all do, and that of all the things we want to do, there is only one thing we must do, "to take the utmost care and kindness in all things."  I always feel that there are those among us,  like my cousin, who teaches us about the grand design of life, whose lives strengthen and deepen our understanding of what living is all about.  Henry's death brought with it lessons of community, support and healing which only love allows; it was a true celebration of life.  

Joy Harjo "Eagle Poem" is from In Mad Love & War © 1990 by Joy Harjo, Wesleyan University Press by permission of University Press of New England.

Over Salt River is part of the AIDS Songbook.