Brief: Flag by Theaster Gates (2012)
SATB unaccompanied choir
The brief is of stitched decommissioned fire hoses, art work was made in reference to the water canons used
against protestors in the 1963 riots of Birmingham. The suggested theme for this assignment is to be a piece
that references the flow of water in the canons, the piece gradually grows in intensity and dissonance,
referencing the harmful and powerful water canons, and gradually slowing returning to the beginning. [This is
suggested, and not a requirement]
Please compose a piece that is between 5-7 minutes.
There are 2 requirements needed to be met:

1. The piece is written with rhythmic freedom (Think Renaissance motets, basically avoid on beat notes, using
   ties over bars) with a written-out accelerando, and gradually ritardando back to original tempo from beginning
   to the end.
2. The main melody should be based on melodic invention and transformation. (Pitch cells and variations, ie.
   transposition, added/removed notes, augmentation and diminution, think theme and variations)

Sample Solution

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Octavia Butler’s story “Speech Sounds” is set in Los Angeles after an epidemic disease afflicts the population, removing critical cognitive functions having to do with communication: the ability to speak, to hear, or to read.

Butler was prescient in this story, as many science fiction writers are, predicting experiences and conditions of life that actually become reality. The story might be disturbing as we find ourselves identifying with the situation she writes about in ways that pre-pandemic readers could not. Use that discomfort to enter into the emotions of the story, to feel the disturbance Butler is evoking in us.

Rye is a complex character. As you are reading, sketch a picture of her in your mind or in your notes by keeping track of the details Butler tells us about her.

Instructions for discussion post:
For your discussion post, respond to either questions 1-3 or questions 4-6. Then, add your own question!

What are the characters in this story lacking? What has been taken away from them?
What are the consequences of this lack?
What is the worst thing you can imagine having to give up (you might think on both a personal level and a societal level)? What would the consequences be?
What is the significance of the names “Rye” and “Obsidian”?
What gives Rye hope in the end?
After reading the “Afterward,” what gives Octavia Butler hope?

Sample Solution

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