Program
Notes Harlan Variations is named for Harlan County, KY, in the heart of southern Appalachia. Historically speaking, Harlan County is fairly significant, as it was the site of many violent labor strikes related to the coal mining industry throughout the twentieth century.
Perhaps its prominence as a place of social and political unrest is at least in some part responsible for its significance in Appalachian folklore and culture, where it seems to serve as somewhat of a veritable epicenter. The famous song “Which Side Are You On?” was written by Harlan County native Florence Reece in 1931 as a response to the ongoing labor strife, and the name is mentioned again in several other songs—most notably perhaps—in the old bluegrass standard, “Shady Grove.”
When Bridget asked me to write a piece for her, she requested that the work have some kind of a connection with American folk music. Being from South Carolina, and having spent a good part of my life in the mountains of western North Carolina and Tennessee, this music occupies a fairly significant place in my heart. Although I am by no means an aficionado, I have always respected and enjoyed Appalachian folk music, filled as it is with colorful characters and stories that simultaneously belie a darker side sometimes steeped in poverty and misfortune.
All that being said, Harlan Variations is cast in a kind of a “crossfade” theme and variations form. The piece begins with an ornamented, minor-mode sounding theme that seems to ponder some of these darker and more mysterious realities before dissolving and ultimately transforming (over the course of several variations) into a bright harmonization of the old church hymn, “When We Shall Meet.” I first encountered this piece on a recording, sung by a congregation from The Old Regular Baptist Church, based somewhere in Appalachia, and was so taken by its soulfulness that it seemed the perfect well of inspiration for such a project.
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