Transcontinental

for solo violin, percussion quartet

Transcontinental celebrates the often uncredited role of Chinese workers in the connection of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railway lines in 1869 to create the first American transcontinental railroad. Offered as counterpoint to the traditional glorification of the American West as well as the emasculation of Asian men in American culture, this work imagines a day in the life of a Chinese railroad worker, from daybreak to the bustling energy of a camp breakfast, to a day of backbreaking and treacherous work, for which the Chinese workers were often paid less than half of their white co-workers. The sounds of nature in the beautiful Sierra Nevadas weave together with sounds of colliding cultures and the clang of the grueling task of forging this crucial artery for American commerce and the annexation of Native lands.