Artistic Overview:

Ukiuq Tulugaq (the Winter Raven) is a large-scale multimedia composition for voice, instrumental ensemble, electronics, dance ensemble, video projection, and theatrical staging. This 90 minute, three act composition metaphorically connects an Inuit creation story, in which the world is created by Raven (Tulugaq) from snow, with the ecological seasonal approach of Winter. As the story is told, in the beginning of the world only Raven existed flying through the darkness of space in the falling snow. Raven and snow were all that existed. As the snow gathered and fell from Raven’s wings, some of it clumped together into a small snowball. Raven became playful and rolled the snowball through the air. As he threw it through space, it gathered more snowflakes. The snowball grew larger and larger until Raven was able to land on it. This is how Raven created the World. In this story Raven is the creator, and snow is the substance of creation. Winter Raven (Ukiuq Tulugaq) metaphorically connects this story with the ecological seasonal approach of winter. Snow was present originally along with Raven, so winter is taken as a symbol for renewal and genesis. In winter, everything is covered equally in a blanket of snow unified under a single geographic contour. Freezing and covering, winter purifies and equalizes all things.

The dramatic form of Winter Raven is a change from fall into winter. This linear structure is filled with a decidedly nonlinear narrative, (the stories and dreams experienced along the journey’s way) using widely divergent media. Each of the three acts explores a different emotional state based on the juxtaposition of time in relation to the seasonal change.

Act I takes place before winter. It is fall. The family is preparing wood, leaves are falling, and there is abundant sunlight.

Act II is the transformation into winter. It is the most dramatic section of the piece, in which the stark northern landscape represented by Kunikluk becomes a backdrop for the juxtaposition of the spirit/flesh and the industry/voice in the Speaking Flesh and Industrial Garden/Lost Voices movements. Industry is broken suddenly by the coming of ice and the freezing of everything.

In Act III it snows. The wind blows, leaving impressions on the snow. The light changes and shadows emerge. The animals seek shelter, their fading prints creating another type of pattern on the snow. While the act is predominantly about moving forward into a still place of winter, it also revolves around the notion of memory and cyclical processes in general. The focus on wind itself is a memory of Act I, and Raven appears, invoking the memory of the family preparing wood for the winter. We are reminded of the continuation and cohabitation of humanity and nature. While the music is still and cold at the end it is pregnant with the possibility of rebirth and resurrection; ideas that give hope for the future.

Each act contains a chamber music piece with video and a “story” (unipkaaq) involving music, dance and interactive video for which special masks were constructed. There is another type of movement in each act, more loosely defined in terms of media, involving some aspect of the human voice or body such as a wood cutter humming, a human body played as a percussion instrument, layers of spoken texts and construction, and the final Ukiuq Tulugaq movement in which Raven appears. At the end of the piece when Raven appears, his arrival is articulated by three representations; the voice of Raven played by an electric violin, the memory of Raven invoked by the masked dancer using an FM radio transceiver, and the spirit of Raven sung by the soprano voice.

Instrumentation

VOICE in "Ukiuq Tulugaq"
FLUTE/PICCOLO in "Kunikluk" and "Snowprints"
CLARINET/BASS CLARINET in "Kunikluk"
ALTO SAX in "Tingnikvik"
VIOLIN in ""Kunikluk"
VIOLA in "Tingnikvik"
CELLO in "Kunikluk" and "Snowprints"
PIANO in "Family", "Tingnikvik", "Kunikluk" and "Snowprints"
PERCUSSION SOLO in "Kunikluk", "Speaking Flesh" and lead part in "Anugi Unipkaaq"
PERCUSSION QUARTET (inclusive of percussion solo part) in "Siknik Unipkaaq" "Siku Unipkaaq", and "Anugi Unipkaaq"