The Glittering Hill

1. At Night, from the Mountains
   
   “At Night, from the Mountains” is my interpretation of the photograph ‘Butte from Harding Way’ on page 101 of Butte’s Memory Book (by Don James and C. Owen Smithers). The great British composer Gustav Holst said that he owed his development to the Cornish miners that he grew up with, so I borrowed some twinkling/glittering sounds from him. I also think of many late-night family drives and the thrill of seeing city lights suddenly appear from around a bend on Harding Way.
   
   
2. The Bells (not Edgar Allen's)
   
   “The Bells (not Edgar Allen’s)” introduces the poetry of Walter Holliday. In June, 2001, as I was about to give up composing any part of this music for choir, I happened upon a very old and rare copy of Mining Camp Melodies in the Special Collections room of the University of Idaho Library. Walter Holliday was a Butte miner, a lawyer and a poet and self-published this book of poetry in 1924. “Copper Tanks” is the first of his poems I set to music and, for me, is especially Butte-like. “The Bells,” his parody of the classic Edgar Allen Poe poem, uses electric mining signal-bells in place of the original rolling, tolling, tinkling bells.
   
   
3. Underground Warfare
   
   “Underground Warfare” refers not only to the daily battles on the job in the mines but especially to the Reno H. Sales book, Underground Warfare, and to the conflict over mining claims often carried out underground and in the courts between 1899 and 1910 in Butte... violent, mysterious, frightening… lonely.
   
   
4. Moonshine Anthology
   
   “Moonshine Anthology (Hellikyro)” is another Walter Holliday text. “Here’s to the men who make the moon, hellikyro.” What does hellikyro mean? I imagine it to be some kind of toast or drinking refrain. Did Holliday bring it with him to Butte? Was it a common barroom shout in the 20’s? Hellikyro!
   
   
5. Variation on a Dublin Gulch Fiddle Tune
   
   An old Irish/British Isles reel called “Drowsy Maggie” was popular in the early years of the twentieth century. My grandfather’s occasional attempts at playing it on the piano (missing fingers and all) were the inspiration behind the beginning part of “Variations on a Dublin Gulch Fiddle Tune.”
   
   
6. The Rocky Mountain Café Menu Tango
   
   Growing up in Butte meant many holiday meals and Sunday brunches at the Finlen Hotel. Most of my memories of these occasions revolve around a short, distinguished, dignified Teddy Traparish, by the 1960’s retired but still a figure of respect and legend. A new Cadillac every year – he must have sold a lot of frog legs! Page 267 of Butte’s Heritage Cookbook reprints a menu from Teddy’s Rocky Mountain Café. Since Walter Holliday wrote no poems about Teddy or his famous restaurant, I have the choir sing the menu as a tango.
   
   
7. Dance at the Wintergarden
   
   “Dance at the Winter Garden” is a tribute to my first drum teacher, Clarence ‘Mud’ Thomas. His stories of hearing the big bands in the 1930’s at the Winter Garden Ballroom prompted me to spend many hours listening to my mother’s collection of Benny Goodman records. I was born too late to experience the excitement of the old Winter Garden, but I spent many hours in its new namesake listening to pounding, rolling, drum-like bowling balls.
   
   
8. Mule Songs
   
   “My Sweetheart’s a Mule in the Mine” …I combined this old miners’ song with a Walter Holliday poem entitled “Feminism”(!) to create “Mule Songs.” Page 18 of Butte’s Memory Book was my inspiration.
   
   
9. The Famous Miners' Band
   
   Sam Treloar’s ghost haunts this entire piece – I heard about him and his band from my father and from Ray Sims, my band director at Butte High School. Ray even played in Treloar’s band when he was younger, and, I guess in my mind, Sam Treloar and Ray Sims have merged… I marched in so many parades with Ray that I can easily imagine the Miners’ Band leading the celebration on Miners’ Union Day. From the beginning of "The Glittering Hill" to the very end – every time you hear a slow, melancholy trumpet melody - that’s Sam Treloar calling, wondering how music is in Butte.
   
   
10. Waltzes from Columbia Gardens
    
    I’ll let the music speak for itself in “Waltzes from Columbia Gardens,” but I must say that the last time I saw the pavilion at the Gardens it was covered with rocks up to the top of its dome, leaving just a patch of white peeking out of the ground.
    
    
11. Copper Tanks
    
    As I said earlier, “Copper Tanks” was the Walter Holliday poem that convinced me to compose for choir in a piece of music about Butte. He’s referring to precipitant mining, collecting water pumped from the mines in settling tanks and soaking scrap metal in it to attract copper molecules.
    
    
12. Friends on the Flat
    
    “Friends on the Flat” was the first music I wrote for "The Glittering Hill." From this simple melody comes everything you have heard thus far. It’s the ancestor of all the movements, buried, but somehow still present, reminding all of its descendants where home is and what made it possible for them to become what they are.
    
    

"The Glittering Hill" is a suite for orchestra and chorus. Its twelve short movements present an overview of the Butte that exists now only in books and in the memories of those who, sadly but surely, will someday become 'friends on the flat'. In fact, books gave me the titles for all of the movements, and the main title, The Glittering Hill, is the name of a 1944 novel by Clyde F. Murphy. When I was younger I was fascinated by the fact that a real book had street and place names from my town.

Daniel Bukvich

"The Glittering Hill" was commissioned and paid for by Virginia Malloy Johnson, Dianne Kimball Johnson, and James Dorr Johnson for the Butte Symphony Orchestra in Butte, Montana, Dan's home town. It was premiered by the Butte Symphony Orchestra and Chorale - James Allen Anderson, conductor - on April 27, 2002 at the Mother Lode Theatre in Butte, Montana.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Butte was one of the largest cities in the western United States. It owed it's size to the many copper mines built underneath the city. The movements of "The Glittering Hill" are based around all aspects of life as it was during that time period.

The artwork used in "The Glittering Hill" audio CD was produced in conjunction with an ongoing multi-media project that was launched by a group of students at the University of Idaho. The group was one of many who participated in a Visual Information Design class taught by faculty from the University of Idaho's Department of Art and Design (UI Information Design Group - Jill Dacey, director). The class was funded under an Idaho State Board of Education (SBOE) Technology Grant, Jill Dacey PI. Members participating in the project were Ludmilla Saskova (group leader), Jeff Gray, Ashley Horrall, and Susan Weaver.

"The Glittering Hill" contains many excerpts from oral history recordings collected by John Mihelich, an associate professor and sociologist at the University of Idaho. The recordings were digitized and remastered by P.K. Northcutt. Other pre-recorded narratives were created from written transcripts using the voices of Dr. Malcolm Renfrew, Professor Emeritus and Thomas Richardson.

• Performed by Butte Symphony Orchestra and Chorale
• Conducted by James Allen Anderson
• Location: Mother Lode Theatre - Butte, Montana
• Date recorded: April 27, 2002

Real Audio Sample of The Glittering Hill

Recordings posted: 9/17/2002

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