I. …a thousand mile song…
II. …a ghost in the forest…
III. …seven who rest in seven…
IV. …a dialogue that has scarcely begun…
V. …son of the spitting snake…
Tongues of Earth is a meditation on ‘hidden languages’ and ‘secret grammars’, patterns of difference and repetition that are constantly forming and re-forming our human and more-than-human geography, hovering at the threshold between abstract pattern and meaningful code.
The titles and concepts for each movement are drawn from a number of sources of inspiration: books about whale communication, underground mycorrhizal networks, the Enochian spirit language purportedly ‘received from the angels’ by occultists in 16th-century England, the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone which were lost to meaning for almost fourteen centuries, and traditions of long-distance drummed speech.
Written for solo percussionist playing 11 percussive objects, the five movements are shaped by organic processes of growth, branching, erosion and decay. Rhythmic figures recur in constantly changing forms, while textures accumulate, fracture and reassemble. The music contains no fixed coded message, but its repetitions and transformations suggest meaning lies just beneath the surface.
Tongues of Earth was composed in 2026 for Justin DeHart.
Percussion required
5 skin drums*, bass drum, 5 wooden objects**
*skin drums: a set of 5 small to medium skin drums arranged in high-to-low order. Drums might include: bongos, congas, tom-toms, roto-toms, Non-Western skin drums, etc. No snares or other preparations to the skin should be used.
**wooden objects: a set of 5 medium-sized resonant but relatively unpitched wooden ‘block’ or ‘plank’ instruments, which might include woodblocks, templeblocks, planks, slit drums, etc. The first 2 instruments should have slits in them (i.e. woodblocks or templeblocks) that can be covered with the hand, and should be mounted on a stand; the other 3 can be stand-mounted or resting on (e.g.) foam.
Mallets required: soft-medium mallets, medium-hard mallets or sticks, superball