The Dawn’s Early Light. SATB, Cello, Four Guitars, 20′. Text: Life Among the Piutes (1883), Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins (c.1844–1891), ed. K.S., and “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814), Francis Scott Key (1779–1843). Commissioned for Conspirare and Craig Hella Johnson, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. Premiered November 2nd, 2019 by Conspirare, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and cellist Douglas Harvey, Craig Hella Johnson conducting, at the Austin Independent School District Performing Arts Center, Austin, Texas, and November 3rd, 2019 at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, Houston. On the CD The Singing Guitar, Delos. Top 10 Classical Album, 2020: Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
Of all the national anthems, “The Star Spangled Banner” is the only one that’s a question. Is the flag still there? The flag we saw yesterday, before the night and the bombs fell on this land of the free and the brave, is it still there?
