Hyas Tyee Təmwata Flexible Winds Score

Hyas Tyee Təmwata

For

Adaptable Wind Instrumentation

Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the National Trails System Act

Composed By Christina Rusnak

2020 /2018

©Copyright 2020 /2018 Christina Rusnak

Rusnak Music Press, (BMI)

All rights reserved, internationally

Rusnak Music Press

Program Notes:

Hyas Tyee Təmwata Duration: ~7:10

In addition to the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Trails System, 2018 marked the 175th anniversary of the Oregon Trail. In the full suite, I strive to evoke the essence of the landscape along the route. The movements represent three very specific and different sites – two of which appear very similar to the 19th century. The most famous site –Willamette Falls in Oregon, was immediately industrialized for its power. Each “location” represents important places for both the trail’s historic inhabitants and the settlers who traversed the trail to reach what they imagined was the land of bounty. Thus, the music attempts to take the listener back to the landscape itself, and to life prior to settlement and during the pioneers’ cross-country experience. The emotions of these people, both with historical ties to the landscape, and the travelers moving through, found their way into the music.

Hyas Tyee Təmwata (Willamette Falls) Oregon; Willamette Falls is the largest waterfall in Oregon Territory and second only to Niagara Falls in the envisioned United States. Fur traders and painters had built up this landscape as North America’s Eden. This was the end point of the Oregon Trail – the destination that nearly half a million people strove to reach Prior to the migration of Americans here, Hyas Tyee Təmwata flourished as a major fishery, with a thriving society of people living in semi-permanent villages of wooden structures. The third movement ties together the falls, the traditional importance of the landscape and the excitement of the setters upon their arrival. Update: The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde became owners of the property at Willamette Falls in April 2019.

Christina Rusnak

Hyas Tyee Təmwata

Duration: ca. ~7’10” minutes

Grade 4-5

INSTRUMENTATION:

Part 1: Flute, Soprano Saxophone*, Oboe or Clarinet*

Part 2: Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, or Trumpet

Part 3: Alto Saxophone, Trumpet, or Clarinet

Part 4: Trombone, Low Horn, Baritone or Euphonium, Bass Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone* Bassoon, Percussion (2):

1. Marimba

2. Vibraphone, Bass Drum, Low-Mid Tom, Shaker, Wood Blocks, Wind Chimes

Performance Notes:

Composed for Grade 4-5, This piece was constructed in a linear rather than metrical process. Bars are set up for the division of the phrases and sections.

This 3rd movement of the suite representing the terminus of the Oregon Trail (today, Oregon City, Oregon) is emotional, with symbiotic yet conflicting sets of tonality. This integrates a 21st century lens on a Historic Trail that is both one of the most revered and yet one of the most troubling and painful. Beginning with life along the falls, Section D musically depicts Manifest Destiny as the political and religious goals of the period. E & F lyrically capture the joy of the emigrants as they begin their new life. G returns us to the waterfall and the continuing presence of its historical inhabitants.

“Te” sound, rather like tonguing, while notated on the staff, is only a hard mouth sound, not through the instrument. Likewise, blowing SHOO, is only through the mouth, like blowing wind.

* These instruments may require a few measures of octave transposition within the part

Transposed Score

Hyas Tyee Təmwata

Willamette Falls, Oregon

Optional Reading

"[Just a few miles out from Oregon City], my eighth child was born. After this we picked up and ferried across the Columbia River...taking three days to complete. [My] husband traded two yoke of oxen for a half section of land with one-half acre planted to potatoes and a small log cabin and lean-to with no windows. This is the journey's end."

- Amelia Stewart Knight, 1853

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