David Yeagley: Wessi vah-peh

David Yeagley: Wessi vah-peh

James J. Pellerite, Native American flute; Moravian Philharmonic conducted by Lawrence Golan The traditional Native American flute is an extremely expressive instrument, but it is almost invariably played unaccompanied. So it’s great to hear Comanche composer David Yeagley’s single movement concerto, Wessi vah-peh, and the other concertante works featuring Native American flute with a symphony… Read more »

Written By

Frank J. Oteri

Frank J. Oteri is an ASCAP-award winning composer and music journalist. Among his compositions are Already Yesterday or Still Tomorrow for orchestra, the "performance oratorio" MACHUNAS, the 1/4-tone sax quartet Fair and Balanced?, and the 1/6-tone rock band suite Imagined Overtures. His compositions are represented by Black Tea Music. Oteri is the Vice President of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) and is Composer Advocate at New Music USA where he has been the Editor of its web magazine, NewMusicBox.org, since its founding in 1999.

James J. Pellerite, Native American flute; Moravian Philharmonic conducted by Lawrence Golan

The traditional Native American flute is an extremely expressive instrument, but it is almost invariably played unaccompanied. So it’s great to hear Comanche composer David Yeagley’s single movement concerto, Wessi vah-peh, and the other concertante works featuring Native American flute with a symphony orchestra on this new Albany disc. Yeagley, like the other diligent composers featured here, takes special care to make sure this quiet instrument’s subtleties are not drowned out by the accompanying symphony orchestra.