Eating Democrats
for voice & guitar (2005)
Composer Facsimile Edition, 2+ minutes
Eating Democrats is a short, humorous piece for mezzo and guitar. The piece was commissioned by conductor George Mabry as one of four such offerings, including one of his own, for his wife, mezzo-soprano Sharon Mabry, on her birthday. Mabry premiered the piece with guitarist Stanley Yates in 2007 on a Dimensions in New Music concert at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. Eating Democrats is the first of a group of pieces called Five True Remarkable Occurrences.
The dedication reads:
” To Sharon Mabry, diva straordinaria, in celebration of her birthday on July 16, 2005″
To order the score: elizvercoe@yahoo.com
Text
EATING DEMOCRATS
Alfred Packer ate five prospectors whom he was guiding over a high Colorado plateau in 1874.
The judge who sentenced Packer to hang indignantly pointed out that “There was only six Democrats in all of Hinsdale County and you ate five of them.”
The Department of Agriculture startled the official community by dedicating its cafeteria to Alfred Packer. Then the General Services Administration removed the plaque and accused them of “bad taste.”