Thoughts on Showdown at the Issaquah Chorale The West looms large in the American imagination. The sense of space, independence, self-reliance, freedom, even the land itself, the big sky country, have shaped our character and our attitudes. A great deal of music sprang out of this fertile soil as naturally as the prairie grass, music that captured the spirit of the westward migration. Some of the songs were brought from Europe and reshaped into an American experience, some grew out of the hearts of the settlers as they moved west, and some were created by modern composers gazing fondly back at our past. Our concert gathers together a few of these tunes and in the process gives us a glimpse into our own hearts. Some of the songs recall the East and the delights that were left behind. Entertainment such as the minstrel show was popular “back in the States” during the latter half of the 18th century, and songs such as Ching-a-ring Chaw, with its imitation of the sound of the tambourine, kept many a listener amused. The fact that white men in black face were lampooning African Americans troubled few hearts. Thoughts of home did trouble many hearts, however, and the settlers often expressed their longing in song. Shenendoah, nearly 200 years old and originally a sea shanty about an Indian chief’s daughter, exists in many variants. This version distills the yearning for home, in this case the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, into one of the most beautiful of American folk songs. Americans kept moving west by wagon and rail, driven by desire for land and gold. The gleam of yellow gold, yellow desert sands, and shining steel tracks fills our folk songs and provides a rich source for our concert. Sweet Betsy from Pike, a rollicking Gold Rush song, depicts the rigors of wagon travel in numerous verses, only a few of which appear here. The love song Darlin’ Clementine tells of a delicate miner’s daughter who drowned while tending her ducks. Sacramento~Sis Joe appropriately combines the railroad work song Sis Joe with Camptown Races, here set to a Gold Rush text. When the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads finally met in Promontory, Utah in 1869, thus linking East and West, the way was paved for rapid travel into the gold fields. The tempo marking at the beginning indicates “crazed” and this setting certainly captures the rush of a train and the “rush” of gold fever. Many of the settlers were farmers, not gold seekers, and we have devoted a section in salute to the “plow that broke the plains.” Songs often helped ease the toil of work, and Hoedown, a dance and play song, does just that as the singers bale hay, plant peas, cook beans, and then get rebellious and quit! The spirit of dance and play reaches its peak in the choral square dance Stomp Your Foot from Aaron Copland’s opera The Tender Land. Its American vigor, spaciousness and freedom make a fitting finale for our first half. The cowboy, riding free across the open range, rugged, untamed, incorruptible (but with that certain spark of roguishness!), has in many ways become the quintessential American and the stuff of legend. Scratch the surface of most of us and you’ll find a cowboy aching to be set free. Why else would a song like Mamas, Don’t Let your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys exist? Television certainly trumpeted that vision in the 1950s and 60s, the golden age of TV westerns. Who can forget (including this middle-aged conductor) Chuck Connors, Hugh O’Brian, Richard Boone, James Arness, and many others, as they strode across the screen, protecting us as they shot it out with the Bad Guys. We have created our own version of the Old West gunfight, but with the theme songs as weapons! In a more serious vein many wonderful cowboy songs that depicted the realities and difficulties of life on the range have become a part of our heritage: mournful tunes such as The Colorado Trail, morality tales such as The Streets of Laredo, Ghost Riders in the Sky and Cool Water. Many of these folk melodies have been strung together in the delightful medley Southwestern Suite. Listen for the textual connections, words such as “Texas,” “river,” “sweetheart,” that guided the composer in his choice of tunes. Singing cowboys such as Roy Rogers and The Sons of the Pioneers made many of these songs famous, and branded the image of the cowboy on our hearts. In light of all this, how else can we close but by singing all together the theme song of the

ultimate singing cowboys, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Happy Trails to you all, and may we meet again on the trail.