The Fishing Trip
for male chorus and tape
Duration: 8'
1986
Instrumentation: 12-voice male chorus and computer-generated and processed tape
"The Fishing Trip" for male chorus and tape, is based on an original text concerning an experience with some friends in the mountains of Eastern Washington when a recreational afternoon suddenly took on a more serious tone. While snorkeling in an ice-cold stream, one of the members of the party caught, with his bare hands, a magnificent three-foot salmon. The group then found itself standing in a circle, staring down at the fish and each person cast a vote as to whether the fish should live or die. The man who caught the fish was Tachumseh, named after the American Indian wife of his great grandfather, General Sherman.
The Fishing Trip was commissioned by Chanticleer. The tape part was created at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University and consists of sounds recorded, processed and synthesized by computer.
To obtain performance materials contact Terra Non Firma Press
The text, written by the composer, is as follows:
Below the icy river skim, a salmon swam so cool so fine,
with no idea that no more time will ever come to him.
As then Tachumseh, brave and sure, with snorkel nose, with flipper sole
did pry the shadow from a hole and throw him on the shore.
And bone-dry on the thirsty stone, a scream, a spray of mighty tail
and we, in awe, did stare and pale to be so all alone.
To everyone the question came: allow for him to live again
or offer him as meal for men and never dream of blame?
Below the northern summer star, a salmon meal so warm so fine,
and some idea that soon the time will carry us afar.