Willow of the Wilderness
Track Listings
| 1. Goodbye Proud World |
| 2. Each Day a Festival |
| 3. Fable |
| 4. Concord Hymn |
| 5. Hamatreya/Earth Song |
| 6. Berries and Honey and Love |
| 7. Humble Bee |
| 8. Patch of Meadow |
| 9. My Brothers |
| 10. Nantasket |
| 11. Patient Stars |
| 12. Musketaquid |
| 13. Two Rivers |
| 14. Brahma |
| 15. The Woods |
| 16. Old Age |
| 17. Walden |
Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
Dillon Bustin followed the honors core curriculum in American Studies at Indiana University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Folklore and Anthropology. From 1985-1988 he was Program Coordinator for Folklife and Ethnic Arts at the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, and from 1989-1990 was Senior Program Coordinator for Humanities at that same agency. In 1990 he became Director of Support for Individuals at the Massachusetts Cultural Council, where he also administered Art In Public Places and the Program for Cultural Pluralism.
After leaving state service in 1991, Dillon Bustin was self-employed as a public-sector folklorist for six years, fulfilling consulting contracts with such clients as the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission, the New Hampshire Humanities Council, the Up-Island Regional School District on Martha's Vineyard, and World Music, Inc. In May of 1997 he accepted the position of Executive Director at the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset, Massachusetts, and in March of 2001 he assumed a similar position with Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts in Concord, Massachusetts.
Dillon Bustin's publications include If You Don't Outdie Me: The Legacy of Brown County (Indiana University Press, 1983) and The Lotus Dickey Songbook (Indiana University Press, 1996). As a filmmaker he has collaborated on several ethnographic documentaries including Tough, Pretty, or Smart: A Portrait of the Patoka Valley Boys, Water from Another Time, and The Pearl Fisher, all distributed by Documentary Educational Resources. As a composer and playwright he has created theatrical musicals including Walden Pond Revisited, Come Life, Shaker Life, and an adaptation of Meindert Dejong's juvenile novel The Wheel on the School.
To audiences on Martha's Vineyard, Dillon Bustin is known as the composer of Tidebook: An Island Rhapsody, a three-part epic musical revue spanning the 1850s-1940s, comprised of Tallman on the Dock, The Captain's Daughters, and The Want-to-Know Club. In 1995-1997 he was visiting artist at the West Tisbury School, Menemsha School, and Martha's Vineyard Charter School, working with students and parents to create joint community productions of Sailing Alone, a musical about Joshua Slocum's solo voyage around the world during the 1890s. In 1998 he was visiting artist at the Edgartown School where he composed a new theatrical piece also set in the 1890s and entitled Frozen In, an adventure in the arctic ice from the memoirs of George Fred Tilton. In 1999 he was engaged by the Oak Bluffs School to devise a curricular unit and musical play, Booming Ben, the Last of the Heath Hens, concerned with the extinction of that species on Martha's Vineyard during the 1930s. In 2001 he shifted his visiting artist activities to Cape Cod, being commissioned by the town of Eastham to compose The Play of Youth, a song-cycle on local history from the point of view of adolescent children. Presently he is composing songs for The Pequod Crew, a prequel to Hermen Melville's Moby Dick commissioned by the Schooner Ernestina in New Bedford.
Dillon Bustin, Executive Director
Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts
40 Stow Street
Concord, MA 01742
978-371-0820 (fax: 978-287-5366)
dbustin @emersonumbrella.org
Product Description
lyrical verses by Ralph Waldo Emerson adapted into song by Dillon Bustin
In his seminal essay Nature (1836) Ralph Waldo Emerson asked, concerning his generation, "Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe?" Seven generations later, I ask, "And why should we not enjoy an original relationship with Emerson and his writings?" Here are poems—and fragments of unfinished poems—that I've enjoyed for a long while, and I believe Emerson would endorse their release from printed books and archived manuscripts into the open air again. At Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts, we sing his verses at the seasonal celebrations of the Musketaquid program in arts and the environment.
Emerson began writing poetry at age nine, shortly after the death of his father. Before he tried being a teacher, or a minister, or a lecturer, he aspired to be a poet. As he once wrote to a friend, he wished to supply the choral hymns of a new age. Like all poets of the Romantic period, Emerson welcomed his lyrical verses being sung or at least recited aloud from memory, especially for public occasions.
As a singer who internalizes texts and composes melodies "by ear," I have memorized Emerson's pieces as I may and remembered them as I will. Any excisions or ellipses or tinkerings with phrasing have been done for the sake of the music. Several of the poems have been adapted for extemporaneous group singing, with a passage repeated as a refrain. Readers who wish to know exactly how the words were written should consult the bibliographical notes inside. One hundred and fifty-six years after Emerson published Poems, his lyrics are not only in the idea stream of the public domain, they are sublimating into oral tradition. Many of his most striking stanzas were not published during his lifetime, yet he continues to become the bard he wished to be. ---Dillon Bustin, Executive Director Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts
Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts is housed in the former Emerson School, a public high school built in tribute to Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1929. With studios for individual artists; classrooms for visual art, craft, dance, and creative writing; a theater; and offices for other non-profit organizations, this arts center is indeed a cultural umbrella for Concord and the surrounding region. The Musketaquid program at Emerson Umbrella seeks to link discovery of art with passion for nature. Believing we can find our interconnection with the earth through the arts, Musketaquid provides opportunities to create and experience art while exploring and learning about the regional environment.
Before this area was known as Concord, the indigenous people called it Musketaquid, "the place where water flows through the grasses." Honoring the wisdom that names a place according to its nature, a group of local artists founded an arts-and-environment program and named it Musketaquid. In the truest sense of community, everyone is encouraged to participate—children and adults of all ages and skills, environmental groups, schools and businesses. While centered in Concord, Musketaquid extends to and welcomes the broader community. All proceeds from sales of Willow of the Wilderness will benefit our educational outreach efforts.
Willow of the Wilderness,Dillon Bustin,Emerson Umbrella
Average customer rating: 
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Willow of the Wilderness
Dillon Bustin Manufacturer: Emerson Umbrella ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  General
| Folk
| Styles
| Music
General
| Folk
| Indie Music
| Stores
| Music
ASIN: B0000C8XLC Release Date: 2003-08-21 |
Tracks:
Album Description
lyrical verses by Ralph Waldo Emerson adapted into song by Dillon BustinIn his seminal essay Nature (1836) Ralph Waldo Emerson asked, concerning his generation, "Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe?" Seven generations later, I ask, "And why should we not enjoy an original relationship with Emerson and his writings?" Here are poems—and fragments of unfinished poems—that I've enjoyed for a long while, and I believe Emerson would endorse their release from printed books and archived manuscripts into the open air again. At Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts, we sing his verses at the seasonal celebrations of the Musketaquid program in arts and the environment.
Emerson began writing poetry at age nine, shortly after the death of his father. Before he tried being a teacher, or a minister, or a lecturer, he aspired to be a poet. As he once wrote to a friend, he wished to supply the choral hymns of a new age. Like all poets of the Romantic period, Emerson welcomed his lyrical verses being sung or at least recited aloud from memory, especially for public occasions.
As a singer who internalizes texts and composes melodies "by ear," I have memorized Emerson's pieces as I may and remembered them as I will. Any excisions or ellipses or tinkerings with phrasing have been done for the sake of the music. Several of the poems have been adapted for extemporaneous group singing, with a passage repeated as a refrain. Readers who wish to know exactly how the words were written should consult the bibliographical notes inside. One hundred and fifty-six years after Emerson published Poems, his lyrics are not only in the idea stream of the public domain, they are sublimating into oral tradition. Many of his most striking stanzas were not published during his lifetime, yet he continues to become the bard he wished to be. ---Dillon Bustin, Executive Director Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts
Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts is housed in the former Emerson School, a public high school built in tribute to Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1929. With studios for individual artists; classrooms for visual art, craft, dance, and creative writing; a theater; and offices for other non-profit organizations, this arts center is indeed a cultural umbrella for Concord and the surrounding region. The Musketaquid program at Emerson Umbrella seeks to link discovery of art with passion for nature. Believing we can find our interconnection with the earth through the arts, Musketaquid provides opportunities to create and experience art while exploring and learning about the regional environment.
Before this area was known as Concord, the indigenous people called it Musketaquid, "the place where water flows through the grasses." Honoring the wisdom that names a place according to its nature, a group of local artists founded an arts-and-environment program and named it Musketaquid. In the truest sense of community, everyone is encouraged to participate—children and adults of all ages and skills, environmental groups, schools and businesses. While centered in Concord, Musketaquid extends to and welcomes the broader community. All proceeds from sales of Willow of the Wilderness will benefit our educational outreach efforts.
Customer Reviews:
a gift on the planet.......2004-12-21
Music Review:
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