Bang on a Can

In recent years, old American hymns and psalm tunes have crept into my music, indeed, taken it over in some cases. The Bay Psalm Book of 1692 is the oldest known printed music in North America. I contains a number of psalms, rather freely translated (they do not follow the King James versions) into rhyming meters, with suggested tunes. Muddy Waters is an elaboration, one might say, of the tune "Lichfield" used for Psalm 69. The text of the first verse is:

The waters in unto my soul
are come, O God me save.
I am in muddy deep sunk down,
where I no standing have.

The texture and overall ambience in the beginning is intended to be muddy. As the piece progresses, brightness and clarity are striven for. The title had nothing to do with the legendary bluesman, but I couldn't resist one oblique reference. -Ingram Marshall

Muddy Waters was commissioned for the Bang on a Can All-Stars with the generous contributions from the members of the Bang on a Can People's Commissioning Fund