Bound For the Promised Land

Words and Music by Matilda H. Durham
Fiddle tunes traditional American
TTBB (div), TB soli/a cappella
Published by Mark Foster Music Company

Written for Dr. Eugene Rogers and the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club for a concert called “Heartland.” This piece evokes the travelers of the Western Expansion and their vision of the “promised land” on the Pacific coast. It uses three 19th-century melodies: the shape-note hymn “Promised Land” and two Appalachian fiddle tunes, “Santa Anna’s Retreat” and “The Temperance Reel.” The fiddle tunes are sung using the Celtic phenomenon called mouth music or lilting, portraying the fiddlers that kept up the spirits of the settlers on the long, dusty road.