We invite you to watch and listen to the recorded video of our preview performance of the Timelines Suite.  This performance took place on March 29, 2022 at Ottawa Pianos, after a two year COVID delay. 

Our suite for two pianos is a work of eleven pieces, approximately thirty minutes in length, and is best listened to in its entirety. We encourage you to read the descriptions of the individual pieces below.

1. Timelines

by Beverley McKiver

Intersecting histories, shared paths

Debra and I discussed various ways to open this collection of pieces. We talked about the idea of the land itself as a starting point and the history of wampum to commemorate agreements between nations. Early drafts of the piece were entitled “Aki (The Land)” and “Wampum”. In our early discussions, we drafted timelines to highlight significant dates for each of us, and created maps to pinpoint important locations in our separate histories. My intention was to create a hopeful mood to open the program. The rhythmic pattern suggests a ticking clock.

2. Ice and snow interlude

By Debra Grass

Winter shapes the land and the people

This Interlude is a brief, improvisational moment. Voltaire dismissed Canada as “a few acres of snow”. Winters presented a challenge to early settlers, isolating them on rural farms, stretching resources. But the quiet beauty of winter also defines this place. As it was before our arrival – the harsh and beautiful landscape of winter shapes the lives of all who live here.

3. DEGONWADONTI

By BEVERLEY MCKIVER

Two against one, Molly Brant

Degonwadonti  (Two Against One) was the adult name of Molly Brant,  Mohawk Haudenosaunee clan mother, older sister of Joseph Brant, and wife of Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs (1756-1774). She was highly influential in the Iroquois-British relationship at the time of the writing of the Royal Proclamation. One of the 2000 Haudenosaunee forced to abandon their ancestral lands in the Mohawk Valley during the American Revolution, she settled in what would become Kingston. 

4. LEGACY

By Debra Grass

Displacement, Rebuilding Home

The legacy theme is one of displacement, leaving the known by choice or by conflict, the voyage to a new land, and rebuilding home in a sometimes harsh environment.  

Although I was specifically thinking of an ocean voyage in a wooden ship, all refugees experience this movement away from home and on to a new one. My 4 x great-grandfather, Michael Grass, led the first group of Loyalists sailing from New York City to what would become the town of Kingston in Upper Canada. He was fleeing the American Revolution, just as Molly Brant was.

The opening and closing sections of the piece allude to the spiritual aspect of home. For Upper Canada, the only accepted religion was Church of England. Although I am not a religious person, these sections allude to Anglican hymns heard in my childhood.

5. AS LONG AS THE SUN SHINES

by Beverley McKiver

Cede, release, surrender

This song was written with increasingly restrictive language drawn from various treaties in mind. Today we are left with the task of restoring relationships.

6. Nightfall Interlude

By DEBRA GRASS

Nation Building Begins

This interlude is a brief moment intended to anticipate the darkness that is to come as empire building gives way to nation building.

7. CIRCUS

By DEBRA GRASS

Solving the “Indian Problem”

Solving the “Indian problem” before and since Confederation has been a political circus of ill-conceived laws, sham debates, contrived photo ops, televised apologies and the perpetuation of white entitlement. Circus expresses the anger, cynicism and sadness generated by learning the history of the Indian Act and its aggressive assimilation policies in Canada. 

The opening and closing phrase of Circus is a modified excerpt from “The Maple Leaf Forever”. For generations this song, composed in 1867, was the de facto national anthem for English Canadians.

8. RIVERS

By Beverley McKiver

As long as the waters flow

This piece began with the idea of damming (damning) the rivers. Most urban centres are located on rivers that were dammed to create hydro power or to facilitate modern transportation. I also wanted to acknowledge the early waterway networks that crisscrossed the continent and the abundance provided by rivers, whether trickles of water, quiet tributaries or powerful rapids.

9. TRAINS

By Debra Grass

Expansion, connection, destruction

Building an east-west link was Canada’s great national project.  The railway was a tool for expansion, progress, and nation-building  but also of displacement as the plains were cleared of buffalo and Indigenous people suffered.

The music is intended to mirror the relentlessness of expansion and progress.

10. AABAWAA INTERLUDE

BY DEBRA GRASS

Thawing of the land and of relationships

Aabawaa is an Ojibwe word meaning “it is warm weather, is mild weather” – from the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary: https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/

John Borrows when describing Aabawaa talks of the ‘loosening’ of things, the gradual melting and flow that can lead to a loosening of relationships and ultimately forgiveness (Aabawaawindam). https://niigaan.wordpress.com/tag/aabawaa/

I use this word because I could find no better one in my language to express the hope of moving from anger and shame to mutual respect. I also associate spring with innocence and it is the innocence of children that inspired this music.

Ironically it is within the larger picture of global warming that our relationships need to strengthen.

11. To RECONCILE

by Debra Grass and Beverley McKiver

Moving Forward, sharing history and home in Canada

Although the music for this piece is simple in structure and harmony,  it was the most challenging.  We started with the title “Home” but left the task of creating the composition to the end.  Beverley took the concept in a slightly different direction with her first draft of “To Reconcile” which we could imagine as a slow dance to end the suite.  After discussion and frankly, some disagreement,  Debra took that initial draft and made modifications.  Together we worked out the final product during rehearsals but adjustments will continue to be made.   As we trade fours at the end of the piece we listen and interact.   It’s challenging for us to do this but also rewarding and sometimes fun. 

The process of creating this piece mirrors its theme.  Reconciliation can’t happen alone and sometimes we will disagree, but to move forward we will have to find common ground together.  It is an ongoing process of listening and interacting, both challenging and rewarding.