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General Speech (1969)
Commissioned by trombonist Stuart Dempster, Erickson's General Speech is a setting of a farewell speech given by General Douglas MacArthur at West Point Military Academy in 1962. The piece requires the trombonist to speak the words of the speech through the mouthpiece of the trombone, while at the same time executing precise musical passages. It also employs many theatrical elements in an effort to embody the persona (and mythic status) of General MacArthur, including full military costume, stage directions, and lighting.
Text for General Speech:
Excerpts from General Douglas MacArthur's farewell speech, given at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, May 12, 1962
Duty -- Honor -- Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. [...]
You now face a new world -- a world of change. The thrust into outer space of the satellite, spheres, and missiles marked a beginning of another epoch in the long story of mankind. [...]
Your guidepost stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night: Duty -- Honor -- Country.
You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty -- Honor -- Country. [...]
Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.
I bid you farewell.
The work of Robert Erickson (1917-1997) explores a wide range of ideas and influences: music of the Second Viennese School, ancient and traditional tuning systems, technology and electronics, handmade instruments, and the natural world, especially in his adopted home of California. "When you come right down to it, what we all do is compose our environment." (Erickson)
Erickson was born and raised in Marquette, Michigan, where as a youth he played violin and piano. After high school he moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he studied composition with May Strong and Wesley La Violette, and became friends with composers George Perle and Ben Weber. He found a mentor through correspondence with Ernst Krenek, and relocated to St. Paul, Minnesota to study with Krenek at Hamline University until 1947 (with three years of Army service in between).
In 1953 Erickson moved to San Francisco, California, teaching at San Francisco State College (now University), the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco Conservatory, and becoming a significant influence on younger composers such as Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, and Morton Subotnick. He served as music director of the then-new radio station KPFA, and later its parent organization the Pacific Foundation. In 1967, with his former Hamline classmate Will Ogdon, he co-founded the music department at the University of California, San Diego, with an equal focus on contemporary music performance and research. Among Erickson's honors are fellowships from the Ford and Guggenheim Foundations, awards from the Kennedy Center and National Endowment for the Arts, and election to the Institute for Creative Arts of the University of California. He wrote articles on diverse topics such as tuning systems and the relationship between phonetics and music, and is author of the books The Structure of Music: A Listener's Guide (1955) and Sound Structure in Music (1975).
Erickson's music can be found on the CRI, Crystal, Naxos, Neuma, New World labels.
related websites
http://music.ucsd.edu/bio.php?fn=Robert+Erickson
Trombonist and composer Stuart Dempster is a leading figure in the development of contemporary trombone technique and performance. He initially studied at San Francisco State College (now University) in California and served as principal trombonist of the Oakland Symphony; in 1968 he joined the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he is now Professor Emeritus. Dempster tours regularly throughout the US and Europe performing his own music and commissioned works by composers such as Luciano Berio, Donald Erb, Andrew Imbrie, Ben Johnston, Ernst Krenek, and Pauline Oliveros. He co-founded the Deep Listening Band with Pauline Oliveros and Panaiotis, collaborated with choreographer Merce Cunningham in Meet the Composer's Composer/Choreographer Project, and in 1993-1994 was composer-in-residence with Seattle's New Performance Group. Dempster's honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois, and a Fulbright scholarship to Australia where he studied the aboriginal Australian instrument didjeridoo. He is the author of The Modern Trombone: A Definition of Its Idioms (1979). Dempster has recorded for many labels including Columbia, Deep Listening, First Edition, mode, New Albion, New World, Nonesuch, Orion, Periplum, 1750 Arch, and ¿What Next?.
related websites
http://faculty.washington.edu/dempster
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