Sisseton Project, for woodwind quintet
by Nathan Pawelek
$27
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Mvt I: Class Melody
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Mvt 2: Mark D.
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Mvt 3: Sarah
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Mvt 4: Michelle
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Mvt 5: Clint
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"In 2002, the Dakota Wind Quintet, principal wind musicians of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra in Sioux Falls, spent three days in residence in Sisseton, a small city (population less than 3000) north of Watertown, SD, located on the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation, homeland of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, a branch of the Santee Dakota group of Native Americans. In fulfillment of a corporate grant to promote cultural interchange through music, the quintet visited classrooms in the public and tribal schools and performed recitals at the Sisseton Wahpeton Community College. The culmination of the residency was working with the public high school band students to compose a new, multi-movement concert piece for the Dakota Wind Quintet’s library of music.
The Class Melody is a compilation of musical notes chosen by students on a piano. Each student chose one note while considering parameters of the ensemble’s collective range. There were 32 students in the band, which is the number of notes in the class melody. One of those students was in a fatal car accident shortly after the piece was completed. When the quintet returned to Sisseton a year later to perform the premier of the composition, the audience included some 300 people to honor that student.
The other movements are vignettes created from a student “homework” assignment, which was to compose a theme. I chose four of my favorite themes to expand for those subsequent movements. Each is titled with the first name of the student whose theme serves as the source material for the movement."
- Nathan Pawelek
The Class Melody is a compilation of musical notes chosen by students on a piano. Each student chose one note while considering parameters of the ensemble’s collective range. There were 32 students in the band, which is the number of notes in the class melody. One of those students was in a fatal car accident shortly after the piece was completed. When the quintet returned to Sisseton a year later to perform the premier of the composition, the audience included some 300 people to honor that student.
The other movements are vignettes created from a student “homework” assignment, which was to compose a theme. I chose four of my favorite themes to expand for those subsequent movements. Each is titled with the first name of the student whose theme serves as the source material for the movement."
- Nathan Pawelek