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From the Summit
Stereoscope 1: Women’s Voices in the American “Old West”
Choral, SATB, piano
Words by, Isabella L. Bird (1831-1904)
Isabella Bird (1831-1904) was a 19th century writer who began traveling on the advice of her doctor as a treatment for her poor health. She fell in love with traveling and continued throughout her life. She often bucked convention and traveled alone. In 1873, she ascended Long's Peak in Colorado. She wrote about it as well as the rest of her time in the Rocky Mountains in her letters to her sister. Those letter comprised her most famous publication, A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. Bird's words about her trip up Long's Peak capture the joy of reaching the summit as well as the awe she felt at the views from the top.
The choice of using the extreme range in the piano as well as the prevalence of the sparse use of the piano in many sections of the piece is meant to convey the vast expanse that Bird would have experienced from the summit.
The prevailing views about and stories of the American “Old West” have a very limited target and focus mainly on the male perspective with women being included with specific and narrow tropes. The series Stereoscope aims to portray women's voices that have been ignored. From the Summit is the first piece in the series written specifically for Cantabile, a chorus based in Boulder, Colorado, and their director Brian Stone.