Hail to the chief

By: Johnathan Skidmore
Copy Layout Editor

This Wednesday, Oct. 11, in the Kasch Performance Hall of the Dahl Chapel and Auditorium, the Monmouth College Chorale will be performing a rendition of “Song of a Salish Chief,” a performance piece which narrates the fall of the Native American Salish nation. This concert, which is free to the public, will occur at 7:30 p.m. The Salish tribe was a nation  which lived in modern-day Vancouver, British Columbia, as far back as 9000 B.C.

The piece was composed by Peter Bjerring, a vocal composer also from Vancouver, and features a narrator, choir, piano, flute, double bass and percussion.

According to one member of the chorale, senior Richard Harrod, “It is a unique and thought-provoking work that uses an interesting combination of choir, percussion and flute to tell the downfall of the Native American nation.”

The performance is led by senior Christopher Walljasper, who is fulfilling the role of narrator. Walljasper reads from the perspective of a young Salish boy who is watching his father, the current chief of the village, going about his duties, awaiting his turn to rule. “Song of the Salish Chief” outlines the rise of the Salish society, beginning with their hunter-gatherer beginnings and ending with the fall of their nation as symbolized by the razing of the Salish longhouses.

More information regarding the historical significance of this piece can be garnered from a pre-performance lecture presented by Sarah Graham, director of choral activities and vocal studies. According to a press release from Jeff Rankin, director of college communications, “Bjerring’s music takes the cadences from the rhythms and textures of the old man’s life. As a youth, the chief watches with awe as the newcomer makes ‘slaves of waterfall and magic from the souls of rocks,’ but he also lives to witness the white man enslaved, in turn, by his own technologies. The chief’s reverie turns to the serenity of his childhood and the traditional ways of his people.”

Bjerring’s eclectic use of percussion and vocal chants, when combined with the passionate tale of the demise of the Salish tribe, makes for a very interesting performance, indeed. Ellen Duffin, a junior and member of the chorale, said, “Initially, I wasn’t quite sure how I would like ‘Song of the Salish Chief,’ but now that we’ve worked on it, it has grown on me. The piece is much more than just a group of songs; it’s a story of a culture told through the music.”

“Song of the Salish Chief” is a composition which was commissioned and first performed by the Vancouver Cantata Singers as a performance on the city’s 1986 centennial celebration. Accompanying this original work is also the narrative read by Walljasper, which was not originally written by Bjerring. This piece is from a poem penned by Earle Birney, entitled “Speech of the Salish Chief,” originally performed as a radio play.

This is Graham’s third encounter with this piece, as she sang in the U.S. premiere performed by the Tacoma Symphony Chorus in the early 1990s, as well as led a production by the Sumner High School Chorus out of Washington. This upcoming performance looks to be a fantastic journey into a culture far removed from our own performed admirably by our peers.