Sense of Place Seminar Series:

The Glittering Hill

Format: Panel Presentation

Wed. Feb. 5, 2003, 7:30-9:30PM

Hampton School of Music, Rm. 116

Notes compiled by Nancy Chaney, Assistant

Composer Dan Bukvich, social scientist John Mihelich, and audio specialist P.K. Northcutt led 50 or so rapt travelers on a virtual journey through time, memory, and imagination to the Glittering Hill of Butte, Montana. As the first presenters for the 2003 Sense of Place Seminar Series, the trio spoke about their creation of a musical suite expressly for the Butte Symphony to give voice to cultural values and place-attachment of longtime Butte residents. Their audience included Humanities Fellows Mary DuPree, Kenton Bird, and Rodney Frey, this year’s program seminarians, University of Idaho students, faculty, staff, and retirees, and members of the general public.

One might reasonably suspect that the seeds for this project were planted years ago. A quote from Dr. Bukvich on the jacket for the CD says, “When I was younger, I was fascinated by the fact that a real book (The Glittering Hill) had street and place names from my town.” Surely, he has given today’s residents of Butte a similar fascination with creation of his own Glittering Hill. As a native, Dr. Bukvich said, “I knew what the audience would be in Butte…They’d be my aunts and uncles.” In composing the work, he recognized that for many old-timers, “there’s nothing else there but memories,” and he felt compelled to select titles that would mean something to the people who live there.

In the summer of 2001, CLASS Associate Dean Sandra Harsager connected Music Professor Dan Bukvich with Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Sociology John Mihelich, who had independently collected some 300 hours of oral histories from Butte residents for his own doctoral research. Information Technologies Specialist P. K. Norrthcutt brought the technical expertise for digital recording mastering and sound design. According to Dr. Mihelich, throughout the nearly yearlong collaborative process, they were guided by their “friendship and by the vision of creating an audio representation of the culture of Butte infused with the emotion and power of ‘authentic’ Butte voices…” He described the process as, “the classic interdisciplinary thing: We started hanging out at lunch…We still do.”

The Suite consists of 12 movements for symphony and chorale, including excerpts from fiddle jigs, mining camp melodies, marching tunes, and mule songs. It had its debut on April 27, 2002 in the Mother Lode Theater in Butte, with James Allen Anderson conducting. The public was told in advance of the performance that some of the work’s imagery would be related to a classic local mainstay, The Butte Memory Book, and according to Dr. Bukvich, “A few people came to the concert with their book.” Dr. Mihelich was quick to correct him. “More than a few,” he said. Many audience members recognized the prerecorded local voices that are interwoven throughout the work. Many also recognize the familiar sounds of mining operations, replicated by clanging pipes, creaking brakes, pounding drums, and even the whinny of a mule. In that context, Dr. Bukvich pointed out although such things may be perceived as clichés in some settings, “you can use a cliché in a non-cliché way.” In the case of Glittering Hill, it works because it is honest, affectionately intended, and fits the aural vernacular.

Of Mule Songs, Dr. Bukvich told Wednesday night’s audience, “When you grow up in Butte, for sure you have to learn the Mule Song.” Some of the reality of that was driven home by Dr. Mihelich (who also has family ties to Butte), who explained the derivation of the lyrics, “On the backboard I sit and tobacco I spit all over my sweetheart’s behind.” It seems that the “sweetheart” in this case is a mule who pulled carts in the mines and who was, along with many of the human employees, being replaced by machinery. According to Drs. Bukvich and Mihelich, the “spitting” is related to the Anaconda Copper Company’s brand on the mule’s backside. The miner was in essence spitting on what the brand stood for.

To learn more about the place, its people, and the bygone era of Butte’s heyday, Dr. Bukvich directed listeners to the University of Idaho Library Archives and Bob Greene at Bookpeople in Moscow. Suggested readings include Copper Camp, whose contents Dr. Bukvich describes as “mostly lies and made-up legends” and which Dr. Mihelich calls “interesting stuff…not available anyplace else.” Both were undoubtedly referring to the sometimes colorful, not always truthful stuff of oral histories. Factual or not, they lend to the aura of place. Another surprise recommendation is the still published Butte Heritage Cookbook that includes historical anecdotes interspersed with regional culinary favorites. Steve Reich’s Different Trains from the 1960s provides other examples of using the spoken voice in music.

On the subject of using the spoken voice, supplemental voice-over used to round out some of the movements, was provided by Moscow residents Tom Richardson and Professor Emeritus Malcom Renfrew, who also attended Wednesday’s seminar. One character talks about “music that echoes from the past” (At Night, from the Mountains; Waltzes from the Columbia Gardens) and revisits the times when “they played that old scratchy record” (Waltzes from the Columbia Gardens). To complement the old-time image, P. K. Northcutt digitally manipulated “noise, wear, dust, scratch, and warp depth.”

When asked about how the locals responded to the premiere of the Glittering Hill, Dr. Mihelich said, “People were crying…it was so powerful.” Dr. Bukvich summarized Glittering Hill this way: “It has an emotional curve to it…It goes the same direction Butte has gone.” Lines in the closing movement, Friends on the Flat, are telling: “It was the greatest place in the world to live…They got rid of guys like me…”

CDs of The Glittering Hill may be purchased for $12 from Bookpeople in Moscow. Further information is available at <http://www.bukvichmusic.com/comp/theglitteringhill/index.asp>