Imagine yourself a composer. A composer tasked with writing a piece of music that captures the spirit of where you’re from. What would you highlight? But what the piece sound like? The theoretical questions for you and me, but questions that gave birth to a new composition for one composer. Hi, I’m Loki Karuna and on this edition of Noteworthy, it’s a trip to the Devil’s Promenade guided by composer Louis Wayne Ballard.
Known by many as the father of Native American composition, Louis Wayne Ballard’s music explores everything from the moon to feast days and other aspects of what he described as Indian life.
He was born back in 1931 near Miami, Oklahoma, where you’ll find a pathway that’s been both the subject of folklore for generations and also the inspiration of this piece of music by Louis titled appropriately After the premiere of Devil’s Promenade in 1973, he wrote many other works earning for himself a number of awards including a Lifetime Musical Achievement Award and a spot in the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. Louis Wayne Ballard passed away in 2007, but lives on in spirit as one of our nation’s most noteworthy composers. Noteworthy is a production of WDAV Classical Public Radio.