The Savage Poem Around Me

Introduction:
Covering an average of 1,700 square miles, Utah’s Great Salt Lake is the largest salt lake in the Western Hemisphere. Bordered on the west by arid desert, barren hills, ridges, and vast salt flats, and on the east by the majestic Wasatch Mountains, the lake has no outlet besides evaporation. Its shores and islands provide a habitat for millions of migratory birds, including various species of pelican, seagulls, avocets, and numerous others. Far saltier than ocean water, the lake is rich in minerals that account for its varied colored waters. The salty water is also the home for numerous nearly-microscopic brine shrimp. The “lonely solemnity” (Lambourne) of the lake and its surroundings are a source of wonder and intrigue for those who visit this remarkable place.

Alfred Lambourne – artist, author, and musician:
Born in England in 1850, Alfred Lambourne migrated to Utah with his parents in 1866. A gifted, mostly self-taught artist, he became fascinated with the scenery of the American West, sketching and painting scenes from many of the places he visited. In Utah, Lambourne was especially drawn to the stark and other-worldly quality of the Great Salt Lake and its environs. In 1895-1896 Lambourne spent a year in solitude, living on the lake’s Gunnison Island. His hope was, as a homesteader and “permanent” resident, to claim ownership of the island, but he was unsuccessful in his attempts to initiate the raising of grapes. He wrote a series of newspaper articles about his time on the island, which were later published as a book, Our Inland Sea: The Story of a Homestead. His writing is vivid and deeply moving; his experiences on the island providing a colorful and engaging narrative of his island cabin, his loneliness, and his interaction with the birds and visiting guano harvesters (who sifted the bird droppings and sold them in Salt Lake City for fertilizer). Lambourne’s love for the Lake can be seen in the remarkable drawings and paintings he created of its water-and-rock vistas, languid mirage-like images, and dramatically changing weather. Into his island cabin, Lambourne had brought an expansive library of revered classic literary masterworks, and even a piano. He died in 1926.

Sanctuary - the suite:
Having grown up in the Salt Lake Valley, composer Marden Pond developed a deep love – perhaps even reverence – for the fascinating natural beauty of the valley, the region, & the State. Dr. Pond was introduced to the writings and artwork of Alfred Lambourne by a fellow musician and relative of Alfred Lambourne, Bruce Fowler. Lambourne’s book, Our Inland Sea, provided a creative springboard for Pond, who composed a musical suite based on Lambourne’s colorful descriptions in his Great Salt Lake memoirs.
This suite might be compared to a major evocative film score, where nature itself is the epic movie.

Sanctuary - the movements:

1. Sanctuary: Aves – Maris – Artemia [6:28]
This three-segment introductory composition emphasizes intriguing aspects of Utah’s “Inland Sea” which provides a protected and isolated, yet lively environment for remarkable natural activity: Aves (Latin for “birds”), Maris (watery environs -- the “sea”), and Artemia (a genus of tiny crustaceans normally referred to as “brine shrimp”). The title reminds us that this geographical wonder can be a near-hallowed place, providing refuge for elegant life forms, amidst stark and unforgiving surroundings. The composer has endeavored to sonically portray the region with its ethereal and primeval character, which is nevertheless a milieu teeming with biological energy and fascinating geological peculiarities. Actual audio recordings of birds from the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (which empties into the northeast arm of the Great Salt Lake) have been used as an aural element of this musical work.

2. The Savage Poem Around Me: Wildness & Desolation [5:02]
As the boat that brought Lambourne to his isolated Gunnison Island sailed away, the overwhelming loneliness of his situation struck him: “Ghostly, wrapped in its shroud of snow, my island stands white above the blackness of unfreezing waters. What have I done? Although I had lived these days by anticipation, no sooner had the sails of the departing yacht vanished below the watery horizon, and left me with my thoughts alone, than I realized at once, and with a strange sinking of the heart, how more intense, indeed, how deeper than all imagining, is the wildness and desolation of the savage poem around me." (Inland Sea, pp. 19-20)

3. Gossamer Landscape [5:05]
The title of this movement refers to the silken and delicate nature of the lake, the lacy salt filigree on the parched “salt flats,” and to the orb-weaving spiders who are prolific in the lakes environs. Lambourne wrote about the shores of the Great Salt Lake, “ . . . thick with a veil of cobwebs; the big, fat spiders making the beach there a place to avoid.” (Inland Sea, p. 176)

4. Noon-Day Mirage [6:11]
“What is this? Across the distance there comes a change. The horizon is melted away; the mountains are blurred; the hill and promontories swim in air. The farthest chains of mountains appear to part, to become peaked islands. The sky seems water, the water sky. Substance and shadow are indistinguishable. Do I wake or do I dream? It is the beginning of a noon-day mirage.” (Inland Sea, p. 181) “In color there is a witchery about the mirage far beyond the reach of the artist’s palette.” (p. 235)

5. Elegant Curvatures: Jetty, Tree, and Tunnels [6:29]
This movement is a sonic homage to the distinctive and isolated environmental art constructed near the Inland Sea. This includes: the world renowned earth sculpture, the Spiral Jetty created by Robert Smithson in 1970; the colorful and spherical Tree of Utah designed and built by Swedish artist Karl Momen in 1985-6; and the isolated, tubular sky-mapping Sun Tunnels created by Nancy Holt in1976.

6. Salt Shaker: Savor/Saver [5:37]
It is somewhat of a culinary irony that intense flavor enhancement and preservative qualities come from an utterly barren landscape. Salt is an amazing substance used by humans around the world. Salt has been an important part of world history, social customs, religious symbols and ceremonies, and even as a type of currency. It has been the cause of the development of trade routes across the world. Accessibility and ownership of salt has even caused military battles. This amazing substance is valued for two inherent properties: its ability to preserve otherwise-perishable food for later consumption; and the way it enhances the flavor of foods. The musical setting here creates a big-band Latin mood, representing the “finer” aspects of culinary life which salt brings to us. This musical creation also harks back to the resort and dance pavilion that existed in multiple incarnations on the southeast shore of the Lake. The composer has pleasant childhood memories of riding the open-air train from the Utah State Fairgrounds to Saltair to visit the pavilion and concessions, and ride the roller coaster there.

7. Enchanter’s Wand [6:23]
As winter drifted into spring, Lambourne celebrated the changing of the seasons and the arrival of human visitors. “Presto! The island is changed. This might be the work of an enchanter’s wand. For many days mankind and I have been strangers, but, lo! society has come to my door. This rock once so desert has become a hive. The gloomy season is ended. I am lost in the news of the world. Though welcome at this ultima Thule is the turn of the year, more welcome indeed are these human voices.” (Inland Sea, p. 43)

8. Evaporainbows [3:09]
The colors of the Great Salt Lake waters vary dramatically. Sometimes blue, reflecting the sky. However, the water at times might also be dingy pink, tawny brown, or pea-soup green. These varying colors are created by water, air, varied microbial lifeforms, brine shrimp populations, and briny minerals suspended in the water. Referring to the waters and to the changing seasons in the distant Wasatch mountains, Lambourne wrote, “One peculiarity of my position here, is to find myself within a circle of changing colors . . .” (Inland Sea, p. 199) The color variance is now especially stark between the northern and southern arms of the Lake, where the water has been divided by the railroad causeway. The northern arm has a higher salinity, which changes the ecosystem and mineral concentrations, causing a redder hue.

9. Offspring of Hell – Fanged & Deadly Rattler – Shade of Devil [4:33]
Lambourne caricatures two creatures that he found especially abhorrent. He encountered a rattlesnake as he hiked in the hills of his island. “Hideous was that rattle – a music of hell!” (Inland Sea, p. 108-110) He was also constantly pestered by a raven, whose obnoxious cawing tormented his placid silence. He comments: “A huge raven that circled around and around, and uttered its dismal croaks just above the island peak . . . . Was that sable thing a living bird? Or was it the shade of Devil?” (pp. 256) This raven, which he named “Devil,” was a frequent companion at Lambourne’s cabin, providing hideous serenades morning and night.

10. Bonneville Vestiges [4:15]
The Great Salt Lake is the shallow and murky remnant of a much larger prehistoric lake, Lake Bonneville, which was roughly ten times the size of the current lake, covering extensive portions of Utah, Idaho, and Nevada. Lake Bonneville was a fresh water lake that was habitable by fish and other aquatic creatures. About 15,000 years ago, catastrophic erosion caused a breach in the northern rim of Lake Bonneville near Red Rock Pass in southeastern Idaho. This failure of the natural earth barrier caused an epic flood to lower the level of Lake Bonneville until it was lower than any natural outlet. Over a period of millennia, and with no outlet, evaporation has caused the lake to shrink to its current size.

11. Bird-Haunted – Frenzied Accompaniments [4:22]
In his Inland Sea accounts, Alfred Lambourne frequently comments on the huge populations of birds that inhabit “his” island. He refers to the “bird-haunted rocks” (Inland Sea, p. 48) where “the birds, however, live a life of unrestraint . . . in a swift, unwearied flight.” (pp. 65-67) He also comments on the “crowds of screaming sea-fowl,” “pelican, heron, [seagull, raven, and crow]” and “broad-winged birds [which] are congregated by the scores and hundreds.” (pp. 99-102) His annoyance with the winged throngs is emphatic: “Bird-voices grow monotonous. I am berated from morning to night. The gulls scream defiance. In every nook and corner of this disputed island, go where I will, the untired birds greet my presence with cries of resentment. Not content with this, they await not my coming, but come themselves to my very door. There they utter their querulous and insulting notes. . . . Truly the island belongs to the gulls by right of inheritance.” The cantankerous birds screech “with an intensity of sound as from a soul in pain . . . .” (pp. 99-102) Actual raven, seagull, and pelican voices are heard in this musical “frenzied accompaniment.”

12. Causeway [6:26]
In 1869, Promontory Point, near the northeast side of the Lake was the site of the completion of the transcontinental railroad – celebrating the connecting of the east and west coasts of the the United States. The tracks made a broad sweep north of the Great Salt Lake. Thirty-five years later the Southern Pacific railroad completed a trestle across the Lake that shortened the distance between Ogden and Lucin by about 42 miles. In the 1950s, this trestle was replaced by a rock-fill causeway that prevented water flow between the northern and southern portions of the Lake. The causeway essentially separated the Lake into two discreet bodies of water, each with its own distinctive salinity level and color.

13. Inland Seascape [7:58]
Lambourne referred to the Great Salt Lake as an “inland sea” throughout his writings. "There is another phenomenon to be seen at infrequent periods on the Inland Sea, one that is unpaintable, and also, I believe, entirely local. It is to be witnessed during the calm summer twilights, when the pale, fairy-like tints on the water are breathed upon by opposite currents of languid wind. As they interplay in bands, in points, in shifting isles of amber, azure and rose, the whole surface shimmers and glistens like a silken robe studded with countless pearls." (Inland Sea, p. 254) This movement is a musical homage to the wonders of Lambourne’s Inland Sea with a stylistic musical nod to his English heritage (and perhaps also to the Eastern Hemisphere’s Dead Sea).

14. Crystal Days – Silent and Implacable [4:17]
Here is a movement that is built on very simple textures, long evolving sounds, featuring a plaintive and lonely-yet-tenacious solo line. “In the heart of these crystal days there lurks an awful thought. Today the same as yesterday; that like the day before; tomorrow but to carry forward the monotony of pain. In this guise, O life and beauty and infinity, you are scarcely to be borne!” (Inland Sea, pp. 33, 104) Lambourne’s term “implacable” means relentless, unappeasable, and unforgiving.


This musical suite was awarded the 2014 Alfred Lambourne Prize,
presented by Friends of Great Salt Lake.


About the Composer:

Marden Pond (b. 1950), recipient of the 2014 Alfred Lambourne Prize, is active as a composer, arranger, conductor, producer, author, and educator. He has taught music for nearly four decades, including positions at Saddleback College, Orange Coast College, Pepperdine University, the College of Eastern Utah, Utah State University Extension, Brigham Young University, Arizona State University, the University of Northern Colorado, Granite & Salt Lake City School Districts, & Utah Valley University (where he received the 2011 Faculty Excellence Award). Dr. Pond holds advanced music degrees from the University of Northern Colorado and Arizona State University. He is the author of books and articles on music theory, digital & electronic music, music pedagogy, music education, jazz improvisation, music for theatrical dance, & music in the home. The composer of music on over twenty recorded albums, Dr. Pond has also created music for jazz ensembles, symphony orchestras, choirs, the ballet stage, film (including the Emmy Award-winning film, The Shadow Of Light from Milestone Productions), video productions, modern dance groups, & a wide variety of chamber, studio, commercial & recording ensembles, a substantial amount of innovative electronic music, commissioned arrangements, & even commercial jingles. Produced in collaboration with concert pianist, David Glen Hatch, the CD, Title of Liberty, was named the 2008 Pearl Award winner as “Classical Instrumental Album of the Year.” He has conducted numerous musical ensembles -- professional, recording studio, community, educational. These include symphonic groups (orchestras, bands, etc.), chamber ensembles, jazz groups, choirs, theater orchestras, etc. He arranged and conducted music for a special performance in Arlington National Cemetery on the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.
A prolific composer, Pond has over three hundred works listed in the ASCAP catalog, including jazz combo & big band compositions, historical works based on Americana, symphonies, cantatas, concert suites, commercial projects, and solo pieces. His works have been performed nationwide and recorded in Europe & the U.S. He has been named as Utah’s Composer of the Year & honored with awards and commissions from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet-the-Composer (New York), Ririe Woodbury Dance Company, the National Pony Express Association, the Entrada Institute, several colleges and universities, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission, and the Utah Governor’s Award for Contributions to International Understanding.
Marden Pond is noted as a unique composer, many of whose works provide a heroic and touching musical reflection of the American West. Note the following compositions that symbolically address the history, geography, & culture of Utah & its surroundings: Pioneer Sampler (orchestral choral suite commissioned for the Utah Statehood Sesquicentennial Celebration), Fresh Courage Take (oratorio commissioned for the sesquicentennial remembrance of the Martin and Willie handcart companies), Windriders (commissioned for the national sesquicentennial celebration of the Pony Express), Echo Canyon Serenade (Symphony No. 2), recalling the historical events surrounding the entry of Johnston’s Army into the territory of Deseret), Castle Valley Impressions (album commissioned to accompany scenic Southeastern Utah artwork by Brent Haddock), and Voices In the Wind (album/suite commissioned by the Entrada Institute to highlight the geographic and cultural treasures of the Colorado Plateau).

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