This Land

From Wind Repertory Project

David Amram (trans. David Amram and Shawn W. Davern)

David Amram


Subtitle: Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie


General Info

Year: 2007 / 2026
Duration: c. 33:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Orchestra
Publisher: Manuscript
Cost: Score and Parts - Unknown


Movements

  1. Theme and Fanfare for the Road | Variation I — Oklahoma Stomp Dance - 3:57
  2. Variation II — Sunday Morning Church Service in Okema
  3. Variation III — Prelude and Pampa Texas Barn Dance
  4. Variation IV — Sonado con Mexico (Dreaming of Mexico) - 5:26
  5. Variation V — Dust Bowl Dirge - 4:38
  6. Variation VI — Street Sounds of New York’s Neighborhoods - 7:55
    1. a) Caribbean Street Festival - 2:10
    2. b) Klezmer Wedding Celebration and Middle Eastern Bazaar
    3. c) Salvation Army Hymn
    4. d) Block Party Jam
    5. e) Tema and Finale


Instrumentation

  • Full Score
  • C Piccolo (doubling Flute)
  • Flute I-II
  • Oboe I-II
  • English Horn
  • Bassoon I-II
  • E-flat Soprano Clarinet
  • B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
  • B-flat Bass Clarinet
  • E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
  • B-flat Tenor Saxophone
  • E-flat Baritone Saxophone
  • B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
  • Horn in F I-II-III-IV
  • Trombone I-II
  • Bass Trombone
  • Euphonium I-II
  • Tuba (div.)
  • Contra-Bass
  • Harp (or Electric Piano)
  • Timpani
  • Percussion I-II-III-IV, including:
*Bass Drum
*Bells
*Bongos
*Chimes
*Congas
*Cowbell
*Crash Cymbals
*Drum Set
*Dumbek
*Field Drum
*Gūiro
*Frame Drum
*Handbell
*Maracas
*Marimba
*Rattle
*Sleigh Bells
*Snare Drum
*Tam-Tam
*Tambourine (regular and bass)
*Timbales
*Tom-toms (2)
*Triangle
*Wood Block
*Xylophone



Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

It was seventy years ago, on a cloudy afternoon in 1956 on the Lower East Side of New York that I first met Woody Guthrie. Ahmed Bashir, a friend of Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, and Charles Mingus (with whom I was playing at that time), took me over to meet Woody at his friend's apartment a few blocks from mine.

Woody was lean, wiry, and brilliant, with a farmerly way that reminded me of the neighbors I grew up with on our farm in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, during the late 1930s. In the late afternoons after long hours of work, they would often congregate to chew the fat in the side room of Wally Freed's gas station, across the street from our farm. I used to get fifty cents to mow Wally Freed's lawn and when I was done and stayed around the gas station, I never got caught while eavesdropping on all the conversations of the local farmers and out-of-work men who would commune at Wally's for their late afternoon bull sessions after their chores were done.

They always told it like it was, without wasting a word or a gesture, leaving space for you to think about what they were saying, and in spite of the grinding seemingly endless horrors of the Great Depression, they had better jokes and stories than most professional comedians or politicians. Woody had this same quality, and I felt at home with him the minute we met. As Woody, Ahmed Bashir, and I sat swapping tales and drinking coffee at the tiny kitchen table from noon until it was dark outside, Ahmed and I spent most of the time listening to Woody's long descriptions of his experiences, only sharing ours when he would ask, "What do you fellas think about that?"

The rest of the time, we sat transfixed as he took us on his journeys with him through his stories. Woody didn't need a guitar to put you under his spell, and you could tell that when he was talking to us, it wasn't an act or a routine. Like his songs and books and artwork, everything came from the heart.

Looking back at these memorable first few hours with Woody, I still remember the excitement in his voice, as if he himself were rediscovering all the events and sharing them for the first time, as he told Ahmed and me his incredible stories of his youth and subsequent travels. Both Ahmed and I marveled at his encyclopedic knowledge of all kinds of music, literature, painting, and politics, which he wove into his narratives, all delivered in a poetic country boy style that was all his own. During these descriptions of his travels and adventures around the country, he often included references to events of his early boyhood days in Okemah.

Ever since that day we first met a half a century ago, I have always hoped that someday I would get the chance to go to his hometown of Okemah, but with my crazy schedule I never had the opportunity to do so. Shortly after Nora Guthrie asked me to compose this piece to honor Woody's classic song, I was invited to perform at WoodyFest, the annual summer festival in Okemah. In his hometown, I was able to meet his sister Mary Jo, her late husband, and Woody's remaining old friends from long ago who were still living there. And by playing music and spending time with people who were also natives of Okemah, I felt that I was able to better understand Woody and his work in a deeper way. I was now able to make a connection, since that first meeting with Woody seventy years ago, to the ensuing years during which I have played countless times with his old friend Pete Seeger and his protege Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and times spent with Woody's late wife, Marjorie, and the numerous concerts I have participated in with his son, Arlo, over the past thirty-five years. All this helped me when writing the original orchestral setting of THIS LAND: Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie.

The opening Theme and Fanfare for the Road has the percussion introduce the actual theme played by the marimba, followed by a fanfare, expressing Woody's desire to go out on that open road. Variation l — Oklahoma Stomp Dance, is my own melody, depicting Woody attending a nearby pow-wow and hearing an Oklahoma stomp dance of the Western Cherokee, on a Saturday night through dawn of Sunday morning. During the dance, slightly altered versions of the Theme appear, as they do in almost every other variation. The variation ends quietly, joined by fragments of the initial fanfare, blending with the Stomp Dance.

Variation ll — Sunday Morning Church Service in Okemah is a musical portrait of bygone times. The oboe, clarinet and harp introduce a mournful melody, restated by the woodwind section of the wind band. The theme is heard as Woody heard it in church played on the organ, but with extended harmonies. The theme is later stated by the alto saxophone and harp, with traces of the fanfare woven in with the first melody and distant church chimes being heard as the variation ends.

Variation lll — Prelude and Pampa Texas Barn Dance is the beginning of Woody's journeys from Oklahoma through America. The solo flute and clarinet introduction to the dance is followed by the muted brass, indicated in the score to sound like Celtic Uilleann pipes. A lively original melody, composed in the style of Irish folkloric music, is later joined by the trombones and tuba, playing the theme as a cantus firmus in an extended version beneath the dance melody itself.

Variation IV — Sonando con Mexico (Dreaming of Mexico) is a musical portrait of the Mexican workers with whom Woody spent time, and about whom he wrote some of his most memorable songs. The opening trumpet call, marked in the score to be played cuivre ed eroico, al torero (brassy and heroic, like a bullfight ceremony) is followed by a nostalgic melody in the upper woodwinds, suggesting the workers dreaming of their home and families south of the border. The melody is developed and leads to a tuba solo, reminiscent of the Mexican polkas played by folk ensembles throughout the West. The principal song-melody returns, with the theme reappearing in the horns, weaving through the Mexican song as an obbligato, showing how Woody could not get this melody and the idea for the song out of his mind.

Variation V — Dust Bowl Dirge, for woodwinds and brass only, honors the brave people who survived the national nightmare of losing everything during this ecological catastrophe and still found a way to survive. One of Woody's greatest songs, So Long, It's Been Good to Know Ya, was reportedly written as a farewell note during one of the terrible storms when it was feared that everyone present with him would suffocate. This minor variation of the theme is played by the solo horn and trumpet and then restated throughout the entire wind band.

Variation VI — Street Sounds of New York's Neighborhoods is a compilation of many kinds of music that Woody loved to hear when walking through the neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn, during an era when music was played everywhere out of doors during the warm seasons. We hear the lively sounds of a Caribbean street festival, with the rhythms of the West Indies, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, and the theme appears in counterpoint in the middle of the march. This is followed by a Klezmer wedding celebration and the festive sounds of a Middle Eastern bazaar, where again the theme is used with the exotic sounds of Greek, Turkish and Armenian music superimposed over it. We then hear the brass family play a hymn-like version of the theme (again using harmonies far from the three chords of the original song) evoking a Salvation Army band, which was a fixture on many corners of New York City's neighborhoods during the late 1940s.

The same harmonies are used for a short section entitled Block Party Jam, often an occurrence to welcome returning veterans of World War Two to their neighborhoods, where jazz bands played celebratory as well as innovative music. Finally the theme returns in a stately fashion with the original fanfare of the road playing in counterpoint, followed by a rousing conclusion restating the opening of the piece and a triumphant ending.

Just as in the case of Beethoven's' Symphony No. 6 in F major ("Pastorale"), where he titles each movement with a brief description, the program notes for THIS LAND: Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie serve as a guide to listener but are not essential to enjoy the piece. The biographical nature of THIS LAND: Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie, just as in the case of Berlioz's moving Harold in Italy (which Berlioz said was inspired by the life and times of Lord Byron), served as a point of departure to write the best piece that I could.

The original orchestral setting of the composition was commissioned by Woody Guthrie Publications and received its world premiere September 29, 2007, performed by the Symphony Silicon Valley in San Jose California, conducted by Paul Polivnick.

The wind band transcription of THIS LAND: Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie was created from a collaboration between a young composer and conductor named Shawn W. Davern and myself. The transcription was produced as a result of Shawn’s doctoral dissertation and is slated to be premiered by The Ohio State University Wind Symphony on April 22, 2026. I am also fortunate to serve as the group’s composer-in-residence as they prepare for the premiere.

Many thanks to Russel Mikkelson and the School of Music for their support, and to the musicians of The Ohio State University for their stellar work in performing the wind band transcription. Music is a collective effort, which is why it is so important, when presented with that selfless spirit. I thank Woody Guthrie for sharing his gifts with the world, and hope that this piece can honor his spirit of bringing people together to share the blessings we all have with one another.

- Program Note by David Amram, edited by Shawn W. Davern


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

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Works for Winds by These Transcribers

David Amram


Shawn Davern


Resources

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