Township Fifty-Five North
Michael Wittgraf
About this work:
Township Fifty-Five North
Program Notes
Township Fifty-Five North was composed in 2003 for Royce Blackburn.
It is a cycle of five songs, each of which sets an excerpt from the turn of the 20th
century United States of America government publications entitled
“Messages and Papers of the Presidents”. Each volume of the publications
contains virtually all public speeches, proclamations, papers, and documents
of each of two or three consecutive U.S. Presidents. The settings in Township
Fifty-Five North are from Volume XI, which covers the presidencies of William
McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.
The texts of the songs cover the time span surrounding the
assassination of President McKinley in Buffalo, New York in 1901. The text
of the first song, “Township Fifty-Five North”, is from a proclamation by
McKinley shortly before his death that opens a parcel of public land in
Wyoming for sale to private citizens. Most of the text is simply a list of
affected townships and sections of land.
The second song, “The Pan-American Exposition”, is the text from
President McKinley’s last public speech at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition
in Buffalo, New York. Its tone is pompous and mighty, filled with positive
rhetoric praising the progress of humanity.
The third song, “The Bullet”, contains the somber announcements of
McKinley’s wounding and death in September of 1901, plus the somewhat
graphic medical report of the medical examiners.
The fourth song, “A Great Calamity”, is taken from the text of
President Theodore Roosevelt’s address to congress in December of 1901. It,
like the second song but with a somber tone, is filled with pomp and rhetoric
glorifying the president and those who have shown sympathy.
The final song, “Township Seventeen South”, returns to the dull
business of the first song. This time President Roosevelt declares that land
be claimed for government ownership, after which he proceeds to list affected
townships and sections.
Taken in a linear fashion from song-to-song, the cycle tells a dramatic
story about a difficult period in U. S. History. On the other hand, the song
cycle is governed also by the principle of arch form, where the first and fifth
songs are similar in musical and textual character, the second and fourth are
similar, and the third stands in the center as a unique entity. The texts of the
first and last songs are rather dull and repetitive, functioning as typical
examples of the everyday business that takes up the majority of work and
time in a bureaucracy. Likewise, the music of the outer songs is repetitive
and speechlike, without much drama or shape. The second and fourth songs
are pompous in character, both textually and musically. The middle song
stands alone, the text conveying an air of guarded hope followed by
resignation, while the music functions as the somber and anguished cry of
despair that was certainly in the air but cannot possibly be captured in a
government publication.
Year composed: 2003
Duration: 00:16:00
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Solo Voice with Keyboard
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 1 Baritone