Composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate joins Kate to tell us the story of Coyote and the naming of the animal people through his piece, "Spirit Chief Names The Animal People."
The Spirit Chief has decided give the animals an opportunity to pick different names if they so choose before humans arrive on Earth.
He sets a time for the animals to all come to his lodge and stand in line and the first come first serve will pick their new names.
For the Okanagan people, the Coyote is a trickster character. And although a trickster can be very annoying and challenging they are also are an important part of life lessons.
Coyote is scheming to get a new, much more powerful, name with more status.
He would like to be either "bear," "salmon" or "eagle" because those animals are the rulers of the land, the water, and the land.
Coyote decides that he's going to stay up all night and be the first in line for the Spirit Chief's naming of the animal people. And in order to stay awake, he's going to dance around a fire all night.
His wife, Mole, doesn't want him to get a new name and end up not being interested in her anymore, thinking that he'll be too good for her after that. So she stays up all night with him to make sure that he actually falls asleep just before the naming, and that he'll actually sleep through the naming and end up keeping his own name.
Spirit Chief opens up the lodge for the new naming and Coyote is fast asleep while all the animals receive their names, and first in line is Bear.
Bear is the ruler of the four-footed animal people and is one of the strongest animals ever in the history of the earth.
And so, Bear is definitely a very, very strong ruler and a very formidable character and all of the four footed animals definitely listen to Bear.
This is reflected in the music by a lumbering tune played both by the double bass and the piccolo — the lowest and highest instruments in the orchestra, creating a very broad and powerful representation of Bear in the music.
Coyote is still fast asleep while the second most powerful creature gets their name, and that is Salmon, who is the ruler of the swimming people.
Salmon is represented by a "flip floppy" theme that is played by bassoons and flute. Their nimble abilities as instruments is meant to sound like swimming fish, just like Salmon, the chief of all of the fish and the things that swim.
Coyote is still asleep, and next in line is the ruler of the air of the birds — Eagle!
Eagle's theme features the brass in the orchestra. It starts out as a pensive and thoughtful theme that eventually takes full flight and gives the eagle a very, very grandiose launch into the air.
Eagle can see over everything in the world, and so the eagle is a protector of all of the other animals.
But what about poor Coyote?
Coyote finally wakes up from his slumber, and he slept through all the naming.
But, he doesn't know this, so he goes to the Spirit Chief's Lodge and he comes in very proud and starts listing the animals that he wants to be named, but one by one, unfortunately, the Chief tells him, "I'm sorry, but those names have been taken."
To Coyote's dismay, Coyote has to take the last name that's left over, and that is the name of ..... Coyote.
Listen to Tate introduce the piece for the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra for their 2023 performance of the piece:
An watch the full piece with narration here:
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Classical Sprouts is produced by Emily Duncan Wilson.
Thanks to composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate for sharing the story and his piece with Classical Sprouts.
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