05: Sonata on Zuni Ceremonials and Dances for solo violin
This Sonata has structural kinship to the slow-fast-slow-fast order present in some Baroque church sonatas. Two Zuni Corn Dance melodies, originally transcribed by ethnomusicologist Natalie Curbs in her pioneering work The Indians’ Book, published in the early 1900s, are paraphrased in the fast movements (2 and 4). Rollin visited the Zuni Pueblo during one of his many trips to New Mexico. The Corn Ceremony and Dances are important features of the Zuni celebratory year, and function as prayers of thanksgiving. The phrases are quite long, especially in the original contrasting material of the slow movements. The fast movements have complex mixtures of two and three eighth-note patterns to create an asymmetry inspired by both Native American and Eastern European folk music.
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