Give Her the River – David Evan Thomas

Instrumentation: Mezzo-soprano, flute, cello, piano

Duration: approx. 13 minutes

Date Written:  2017

Premiere:  September 28, 2017, Minneapolis, Minnesota by: Monica Murray, soprano; Jennifer Kinnard, flute: Daryl Carlson, cello; Mimi Tung, piano

Program Note: 

Thursday Musical, founded in Minneapolis in 1892 as The Ladies Thursday Musicale, is one of Minnesota’s oldest musical organizations. For a work celebrating the 125^th anniversary of the founding of Thursday Musical, I chose one instrument from each of the instrumental families represented in the Thursday Musical membership: voice, woodwind, string, keyboard. I also chose a poet, Michael Dennis Browne (b. 1940), who was born in England but has made his home in Minnesota since 1971. The text of Give Her the River comes from Michael’s picture-book of that name with paintings by Wendell Minor (New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Simon & Schuster, 2004.) The setting is the Mississippi River as it floats past Riverside Park and West River Road in Minneapolis.

I have set every word of Michael’s beautiful poem and have repeated words sparingly. As I paged through the book I realized I was reading a litany, a responsorial prayer with the same formula beginning each line. The resonance with a traditional form appealed to me and is reflected in the music’s structure. The book bears a subtitle, “A Father's Gift to his Daughter,” that was not a part of Michael’s original poem. I like to think that my musical work will celebrate the gift that Thursday Musical has been to the Minnesota musical community over 125 years.