1973 was a productive year for the composer: he received the Indian Achievement Award in January, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the College of Santa Fe on May 13th, the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra commissioned a new work from Ballard, and Skitch Henderson and the ensemble premiered the new piece, Devil’s Promenade, in Tulsa on May 20th. It continued to be performed. Dennis Russel Davies, an important advocate for the music of Louis W. Ballard, conducted the work during the Cabrillo Music Festival in Santa Cruz, CA in August, 1975.

The title, borrowed from an area of Quapaw, OK, is also the birthplace of Louis W. Ballard and was once a ceremonial dance ground for the Quapaw Tribe. The instrumentation for Devil’s Promenade includes  a number of Native American percussion instruments: water drum, war drum, Seneca cow-horn rattle, seashell rattles, tom-tom, and Dakota drum. The opening and closing sections of the work feature flourishes in the woodwinds and the string section employs percussive devices, adding to the rhythmic drive.

The middle section, Adagio Cantabile, is more lyrical. The primary melodic material, presented in the English Horn, was borrowed from a Sioux Ghost Dance song. Louis was a collector of traditional Native American songs. He was familiar with a number of songs from his youth and commercial recordings. During his travels he would often meet with musicians from various tribes and collect songs from them for use in his educational materials. The composer became familiar with this song, absorbed it, and internalized it. He discussed the song and sang it himself during lectures on Indian music.

Program notes by Dr. Karl Erik Ettinger