Sea Smoke on Gichigami for Soprano, Bassoon, and Piano

JB 182

Sea Smoke on Gichigami | Jenni Brandon Soprano, Bassoon, Piano

Sea Smoke on Gichigami For Soprano, Bassoon, and Piano

Music by Jenni Brandon Poem by Linda LeGarde Grover

Program Note Sea Smoke on Gichigami for soprano, bassoon, and piano tells the story of the elusive water spirits that arise out of Lake Superior (Gichigami) as the sea smoke covers the lake.

Sea Smoke is a phenomenon when water vapor forms when cold air moves above warmer water. As the water vapor rises, the cold air only holds so much moisture, forcing the water to become fog. As it rises from the lake’s surface, it creates the heavy “sea smoke” that blankets the area.

In the stories of the Ojibwe people who live in this area, they tell of an underwater creature being called the Mishipeshu, or the Great Lynx.

With the body of a feline, horns of a deer, and scales on their back, they are said to live in the deep parts of Lake Superior (Gichigami), causing storms and death, and would have to be placated in order to safely cross the lake.

Within the poem by Ojibwe author and poet Linda LeGarde Grover, you’ll meet these creatures and learn about their activities during the four seasons of the lake, from fall to winter, spring to summer. The music paints a picture of these creatures in these seasons, from the beautiful colors of fall leaves reflecting on the surface of the water, to stormy and terrifying trips across an unforgiving lake. Ms. Grover writes of one story that tells of a rare sighting of these creatures – a young woman rowing a boat across the lake sees these water spirits, and returns to shore, her hair now white from the terror and awe of her experience.

In representing this story using the words of Ms. Grover and setting them to music for soprano, bassoon, and piano, I wanted the water spirits to play an extremely important role in this story, but also allow the sea smoke and lake to be characters as well. These powerful elements of sea smoke, water, legend, and location are an incredibly important part of the lives of the Ojibwe

people, and it is an honor to be able to share this legend through music.

About Linda LeGarde Grover, poet Linda LeGarde Grover is a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe and a professor emeritus of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Her works reflect her scholarly research on federal policy and American Indian families. Her fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction have received the Flannery O’Connor Award, the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, the Wordcraft Circle Award for Fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award.

Jenni Brandon is a composer and conductor, creating music in collaboration with other musicians and artists. She has written over 70 works, telling stories through memorable musical lines influenced by nature and poetry.

Commissioned to write music from solo to orchestral works, her music appears on over 21 albums. Her music has been awarded the Sorel Medallion, American Prize, Paderewski Cycle, Women Composers Festival of Hartford International Competition, and Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition among others. Her works are published and distributed by Boosey & Hawkes, Santa Barbara Music, Graphite, TrevCo, Imagine, J.W. Pepper, June Emerson, and her own publishing company Jenni Brandon Music. As a conductor she conducted her one-act opera 3 PADEREWSKIS in the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center. She also presents workshops on collaboration and the business of music, striving to create a supportive environment where collaboration leads to an exploration of ideas. Visit jennibrandon.com to learn more.

Cover Photo:"File:Lighthouse in Sea Smoke, Canal Park, Duluth 12 27 17 -lakesuperior -sunrise -winter --10F (25464054368).jpg." Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. 29 Mar 2022, 15:36 UTC. 13 Jun 2022, 17:16 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lighthouse_in_Sea_Sm oke,_Canal_Park,_Duluth_12_27_17_-lakesuperior_-sunrise_-winter_-10F_(25464054368).jpg&oldid=645053287>.

Sea Smoke on Gichigami

By Linda LeGarde Grover ©2020 Used with permission

Little Spirit Moon, Great Spirit Moon, Bear Moon and Snow Crust Moon the four moons of winter Sunrise these coldest mornings of gelid moons sears the horizon, slicing dawn from night red-orange light captured on facets of ice crystals that spin and glitter in the air, falling to the caul of translucent marble that covers Gichigami.

Beneath that frozen vastness the lake world stirs with the earth; light diffused to the palest of golds rouses spirits curled in sleep on the valleyed lake floor; awake they push with scaled claws and rise, These coldest mornings of gelid moons, their breath white steam and silver mist rises from the vastness of ice. sea smoke on Gichigami.

On the shore an old man watches the song gray white silver drifting, rolling across the lake.

He lifts a palm in morning prayer; tobacco scatters in four directions.

The song begins with spring and the Creator who made the earth streams rivers lakes oceans grass plants flowers trees the medicines the seasons birds animals insects and finally the first man, born to the granddaughter of the moon.

Shimmering cold in summers of the past the lake carried them weightless buoyant floating Sun glinting on wet scales and claws

on the shore they rested against gabbrous rock heated by the sun, this before rancor reached the world before the Great Flood and finally redemption and the retreat to the underwater, the cold darkness of the valley a grace of sorts.

Since then, in early autumn when skies reflect gentian waters of the lake they rise with the tide, lured by the colors of the hillside water-blurred red orange yellow leaves against the black of rocky cliffs yet obliquely they gaze, cautiously remembering the spirit who dazzled by the brilliance drifted lost toward an inlet where a young woman rowing alone in a green-painted wooden boat recoiled, her hair whitening.

Late autumn ice forms and breaks heavy on the surface of the lake slowing the movements of the spirits whose scales and claws gray and dull starving for the sun reach above Gichigami to grasp the wind. on the shore waves collide with rocks and trees to crush those fragilities built by man.

Winter subdues the waters to ice; below, the spirits sleep lightly dreaming of the song they will sing at sunrise.

These coldest mornings of gelid moons.

Little Spirit Moon, Great Spirit Moon, Bear Moon and Snow Crust Moon the four moons of winter

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