D-1 Waterfowl, Waterfall? A Creative Journey in Transformation

In June and July 2018, I pursued a composition retreat in a rural area of British Columbia, Canada. As in previous years, this year’s retreat centered primarily on the geography of a particular ranch. This retreat was highly inefficient technologically yet highly productive creatively. The oral presentation will engage in a multi-sensory exploration, including video, of the creative transformation of portions of a William Cullen Bryant poem, “To a Waterfowl.” Central in this creative process was a side trip to a spectacular waterfall. Geography, creative play, and other opportunity provided a context for the rewriting of portions of the poem and contrasting the result with analogous portions of Bryant’s original poem. The resulting choir-and-organ musical composition drafts varied greatly in both overall expression and expressive details, while both communicating a similar message about God’s profound guidance in circumstances of need.