Redacted (2025)
Chamber Orchestra - 1+picc.1.1.1+sax—0.0.0.0—perc.—pno–strings(1.1.1.1.1 minimum)
Duration: 14’
Commissioned by David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony for the Dogs of Desire. Premiered by the Albany Symphony June 6, 2025.
Recording
Program note
When writing Redacted, I was considering how one group’s sense of promise and hope can mean another group’s demise. In the case of the history of the United States, colonization, settling, and westward expansion signified massive progress for the then-nascent American nation. As an infrastructure project, the Erie Canal unified the state of New York, forging a pathway between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. At the time, this sort of large scale infrastructure project had not yet been executed in the US; in fact, connecting these two bodies of water gave way to New York State’s moniker, “The Empire State.”
The Erie Canal’s construction particularly exemplifies the rift between hope and demise. While the economic and social promise of the project gave way to the construction of cities and a massive population boost, construction of the canal displaced, disempowered, and decimated Native populations. The US’s territorial and hegemonic expansion spelled disaster for Native Americans who had called their land home for thousands of years.
Since moving to New Jersey in 2020 (I lived in Princeton from 2020-2025), I noticed the large number of towns whose names are derived from Native American languages; Parsippany, Raritan, Secaucus, Hoboken, Netcong, Paramus, Manalapan, Manahawkin, to name a few. When looking at the areas surrounding the Erie Canal, I noticed the same thing. Towns and counties such as Skaneateles, Onondaga, Oswego, and Genesee, help define the region.
The completion of the Erie Canal brought in a massive age of expansion for the United States, specifically New York. It became 10 times cheaper to transport goods. Populations boomed. Lives, and cultures were erased. My piece, Redacted, attempts to consider the friction between what was removed, and what remains.