Eighteen Echoes in Cherokee: Revisiting Carl T. Fischer’s Indian Suite and other notes from the past
Nine contrafacts based on the melodies of Fischer’s Reflections of an Indian Boy paired with nine vocal works on texts written by Cherokee people in Cherokee.
The mission:
Eighteen Echoes celebrates Cherokee language, history and culture through the writings of everyday Cherokee people throughout the last two centuries and through the music of Cherokee composer Carl T. Fischer; It is about connecting with family of generations past, to learn about who they were and where they came from.
Revisiting Reflections
The audio excerpts below are demos that feature John Daversa on trumpet and a digitally-realized orchestra. Each of these movements is based on music from Fischer’s Indian Suite. We are seeking financial support to replace the digital instruments with a live full orchestra.
On “Lament”
“Lament” is the eighth movement in Fischer’s original work, but the first in Eighteen Echoes. It transforms the dirge-like theme into a rhythmically-charged overture.
On “Maiden’s Prayer”
Fischer’s original theme plays with shifts from major to minor which is the basis for the underlying accompaniment of this third movement of Eighteen Echoes.
On “Lullaby”
Fischer’s “Lullaby” begins the second half of his suite. This movement of Eighteen Echoes draws from Fischer’s delicate theme and light, flowing textures.
We need your voice
The excerpts below are from three of the nine vocal movements sung by the Lebanon Valley College Chamber Choir under the direction of Kyle Zeuch. If you are a Cherokee singer, we want to add your voice to these recordings.
1939 – Love Letter no. 2
A woman writes to her beloved “I am happy I just saw you. You must get me my shoes, size six.”
1902 – Note about a runaway
In a note about a teenager who has run away, the speaker writes “I was looking for her all day on Monday; all day Monday and all night.”
1951 – Letter to My Mother
A young man writes to his mother ” . . . also, it rained here, surprisingly, but throughout this day, it was fair and warm.”
About the artists:
Multi-Grammy-winning artist John Daversa is the featured trumpet soloist on Eighteen Echoes, composed by Justin Morell. Daversa and Morell are lifelong friends and musical collaborators and recently completed All Without Words, a multi-movement orchestral jazz trumpet concerto about parenting a non-verbal autistic child. All Without Words Live was performed in 2023 by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
Background:
Reflections of an Indian Boy
Carl Fischer, grandfather of composer Justin Morell, was a pianist, composer, and bandleader who composed some of the most well-known songs of the 1940’s, including “We’ll Be Together Again”, “You’ve Changed”, and “It Started All Over Again”. Reflections—or the “Indian Suite”, as Fischer called it—was composed over a period of fifteen years beginning in the 1930s. At the time of his death in 1954, Fischer had completed nine movements in piano score and it existed almost entirely in recorded audio only. The audio was transcribed and later orchestrated by Victor Young (film composer and songwriter of standards including “Stella By Starlight” and “My Foolish Heart”). The piece was premiered in 1954 by the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and later released on Columbia Records under the direction of Paul Weston. More about Carl Fischer.
The documents
This is one of the love letters set to music in Eighteen Echoes. Here the author asks her beloved to send her letters to read. Each of the texts set to music is kept in the Kilpatrick Collection of Cherokee Manuscripts at the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, many of which are digitized. None of the texts chosen for Eighteen Echoes contain sacred writings.
Cherokee Language
Cherokee is written using the syllabary developed in the nineteenth century by Sequoyah. The Digital Archive of Indigenous Language Persistence (DAILP) is a wonderful resource for learning about the Cherokee language and some of the texts in Eighteen Echoes. You can also learn about the language at the Cherokee Nation Language Department and through programs like the one run by Sara Snyder-Hopkins at Western Carolina University
Please consider making a contribution to Eighteen Echoes in support of our mission to celebrate Cherokee language and history