Finally, my eighty-minute movie score will be premiered, here in Oklahoma City, June 10, 2012. This music was commissioned by the Oklahoma State Historical Society (Dr. Bob Blackburn, Executive Director), in December of 2007. The OSHS sought a symphonic score as a sound track to the 1920 silent film, “Daughter of Dawn,” by Norbert A. Myles. I, David Yeagley, was chosen. I am the first American Indian composer to be commissioned for a full-length movie score. The score was completed in June, 2008.
Daughter of Dawn, counseled by her Father. From the 1920 silent film, “Daughter of Dawn,” by Norbert A. Myles.
The film, with the music, will be present to the public, for the first time, June 10, 2012 (Sunday) by the Dead Center Film Festival in Oklahoma City. There are two showings: 12:30 and 2:30, both at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art (415 Couch Drive) (See OKCMA schedule and tickets.)
Dr. David A. Yeagley, Comanche.
The music was recorded by the Oklahoma City University Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Benjamin Nilles (with recording engineer John Cross), during the 2011-2012 academic year.
As the premiere approaches, there will be more and more publicity. The Oklahoma State Historical Society has major plans for the film and the music. After several different showings in Oklahoma, plans include showings at the major films festivals in the United States, like San Francisco, Sundance, Tribeka; and then festivals of the world, like Toronto, Cannes, and Milan. Fund raising has already begun.
The score features the American Indian flute as the musical persona of the main character, Daughter of Dawn. The flute part is performed by Timohty Archambault, Kichesipirini (The Kichesipirini are a Canadian Algonquian tribe, of the Ottawa River region around Morrison Island.) Archambault has performed and recorded my music before. He performed the Indian flute part for my Salve Regina (women’s chorus) at the National Museum of the American Indian, November 12, 2007. He has also make historical recordings for the Smithsonian. Archambault is an modern authority on all North American Indian flutes, their history, their use, and even the making of them. Archambault is able to perform all the chromatic scales on the flute, not just the traditional pentatonic (five note) scale. In the future he will have an album of my Suite Tragique (2007), a 45 minute collection of baroque dance forms for unaccompanied Indian flute.
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Daughter of Dawn: Premiere, OKC, June 10, 2012
