Battle for the Ballot, The

From Wind Repertory Project
Stacy Garrop

Stacy Garrop


General Info

Year: 2020 / 2022
Duration: c. 15:35
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Orchestra
Publisher: Theodore Presser
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - Rental   |   Score Only (print) - $57.99


Instrumentation

Full Score
Flute I-II-III-IV-V (V doubling Piccolo)
Oboe I-II-III-IV (IV doubling English Horn)
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon (or Contrabass Clarinet)
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-VIII
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
C Trumpet I-VI
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium I-II
Tuba I-II
String Bass
Piano
Harp
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III-IV, including:

  • Bass Drum
  • Bongos
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Crotales
  • Egg Shaker
  • Marimba
  • Splash Cymbal
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Tam-tam
  • Tenor Drum
  • Tom-Toms
  • Triangle
  • Tubular Bells

Microsoft PowerPoint slide presentation


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Democracy in the United States has always been a messy process that is in a constant state of flux. When the nation’s Constitution was penned, the framers of the document didn’t differentiate voting rights between men and women. This led to various interpretations in the thirteen original colonies. For instance, while most of the colonies passed state laws that stipulated only a male adult who possessed property worth fifty pounds to vote, New Jersey’s laws allowed women to vote between 1776 and 1807, after which they were excluded. Women weren’t the only disenfranchised party in these states – slaves, men of particular religions, and men too poor to own the requisite amount of land were excluded as well. As the country progressed, wording was added to many states’ voting laws to ensure that white men (and a slim grouping at that) were the sole possessors of the vote.

Women’s inability to vote carried significant consequences. They paid taxes with no legal voice in crafting the laws of the land (i.e., taxation without representation). They were barred from becoming politicians, formulating laws, and serving on juries. If a woman got married, she immediately lost custody of her wages, children, possessions, and property. Women grew progressively frustrated by these circumstances and began to organize. The first women’s rights convention was held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, and officially launched the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement. While additional conventions were held over the next several years, forward progress was halted during the Civil War (1861-1865), after which the cause was taken up again. Starting in the late 1860s, various suffrage organizations formed, fell apart, and re-formed in pursuit of rallying women and men to the cause. Black female suffragists were not treated well by many of their white counterparts; as a result, they created organizations and clubs of their own. Even when the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1919 and ratified in 1920, many states immediately passed laws that blocked Black women from voting by one means or another; this situation wasn’t rectified until Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act which federally protected all citizens' right to vote and put an end to discriminatory practices throughout the country. Nonetheless, we still witness today how various parts of our nation try new methods to disenfranchise Black women and men from voting. For instance, in June 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court removed a significant section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act which enabled especially southern states to once again seek to disenfranchise primarily Black voters because they are no longer required to get the approval of the Justice Department when revising voting laws in their states. Even more recently, the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election has brought a fresh wave of attacks on voting rights in states all around the country. Not only is democracy a messy process, but it is something we must be vigilant in safekeeping for all of our citizens.

The Battle for the Ballot features the voices of seven S\suffragists, four of whom are Black (Carrie W. Clifford, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Adella Hunt Logan, and Mary Church Terrell) and three of whom are white (Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, and Carrie Chapman Catt). I excerpted lines from their speeches and writings, then interwove these lines together to form a single narrative that follows their reasoning for fighting so hard for the right to vote.

Commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Music Director and Conductor Cristian Măcelaru, with generous support from JoAnn Close and Michael Good, The Battle for the Ballot commemorates the centenary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920 granting women the right to vote. The wind ensemble edition was commissioned by the University of Colorado Boulder.

- Program Note by composer


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Butler University (Indianapolis, Ind.) Wind Ensemble (Trae Blanco, conductor) - 26 February 2023
  • University of Nebraska Omaha Symphonic Wind Ensemble (Joshua Kearney, conductor; Cynthia Robinson, narrator) - 7 December 2022
  • University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) Wind Ensemble (Kenneth Ozzello, conductor; Caroline Wright, narrator) - 3 November 2022


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

Retrieved from "https://www.windrep.org/index.php?title=Battle_for_the_Ballot,_The&oldid=421476"