Light Down (2018)
After the traditional folk song LOVING HENRY

Light Down takes its title from the opening line of the traditional murder ballad Loving Henry. The folk material, the story of a woman murdering her adulterer lover, is quoted in the alto flute. The ensemble interjects through a catalogue of orchestrational colors - a scrape on the tam-tam, a cluster in the piano, or a drone on the open strings of the cello. A series of sections based on patterns frame the ballad. This piece is dedicated to noexit, whose artistic directors always elicit particular delight in the macabre.

Light down, light down, loving Henry, she said 
And stay all night with me 
There’s a chair for you and a chair for me 
And th candle’s a burning free

I can’t light down Lady Marget, he said 
And stay all night with thee
For my only little gallin the Arkansas land 
Will wait long for me comin home

Then bending over th horn of his saddle 
He kissed her one, two and three
She took a sharp knife all from her side 
And pierced him both wide and deep 

Ride on, ride on, loving Henry, she cried 
And ride beneath th sun
And your only little gal in th Arkansas land 
Will wait long for you comin home

I can’t ride on, Lady Marget, he cried 
And ride beneath th sun 
For don’t you see my own hearts blood 
A tricklin down, does run

Some takin him by th lily white hands 
Some takin him by th feet
They throwed him in th dark river side 
That runs so wide and deep

Lie there, lie there, lov’n Henry, she cried 
Till th meat rots off your bones
And your only little gal, in the Arkansas land 
Will wait long for you comin home

Loving Henry
As sung by Joan O’Bryant Wichita, Kansas
June 21, 1958
Max Hunter Folk Song Collection Missouri State University






Live Recording
March 2018
No Exit New Music Ensemble
WOLFS Gallery
Cleveland, OH

Light Down (2018) - flute, string trio, piano & percussion

From an early age, Jason Michael Gerraughty (b. 1982) played brass instruments in community bands, drum and bugle corps, musical pits, and orchestras in small towns throughout New England. These influences solidified a desire to create music of value to both amateur and seasoned listeners.  A central tenet of his work is combining innovative approaches to form, color, and texture with a direct and intuitive musical framework. Gerraughty’s music produces new and peculiar blooms from its roots in the classical tradition.

Gerraughty holds a PhD from Stony Brook University, but currently works outside of academia.  Composing, his true passion, occurs in the early morning hours before work each day. He lives in the desert outside Los Angeles, but dreams of the Atlantic beachside towns of his youth often.

www.kincaidrabb.com

Kincaid Rabb (b. 1993, they/them pronouns) is an award-winning composer, working at the intersection of storytelling and new music. Kincaid is an artist-scholar whose research includes musical narratology, emotional catharsis, and the phenomenon of the theme park as inspiration.  Using narration, worldbuilding, and a strong sense of fun and play, Kincaid creates musical experiences that immerse audiences into intimate spaces and that reward waders, swimmers, and divers alike. Kincaid produces works that trapeze artistic disciplines, curating performances that seamlessly integrate different sensory experiences and create lasting memories through music.

Kincaid’s collaborations have included Paradise Winds, The _____ Experiment, the Driftwood Quintet, Kontra Duo, Keyed Kontraptions, Duo R2, the Brelby Theatre Company, and the faculty and students at the University of Arizona and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Kincaid is a founding member of Basket of Owls, an ensemble of musician-narrators dedicated to curating spaces for unheard stories. Their principal teachers have included Douglas Harbin, Daniel Asia, Pamela Decker, Diego Vega, and Jennifer Bellor.

Currently residing in San Diego, California, Kincaid graduated with a Master of Music in Composition in 2021 from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where they held graduate assistantships in theory, composition, and musicology. They graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Music in Composition in 2017. Kincaid is affiliated with ASCAP and is a NextGen Member of the Themed Entertainment Association. When not working on making more music about dinosaurs, superheroes, or wizards, Kincaid can be found riding roller coasters at local Southern California theme parks.

Light Down (2018) - flute, string trio, piano & percussion

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