Product Description
M45 is the Messier catalog number for an open star
cluster better known as the Pleiades. Originally for chamber orchestra, Oot-kwa-tah
is dedicated to SUNY Schenectady County Community College on the forty-fifth
anniversary of the colleges establishment as part of the State University of
New York. The college sits on land that was once part of the Mohawk nation of
the Iroquois Confederacy. Oot-kwa-tah is inspired by the
Iroquois legend of M45, the Pleiades star cluster.
The Iroquois tell a story about seven children who met
each day and danced for hours at a time instead of doing chores.
An old man appeared to them one day as they danced. He shone
magnificently like silver and was clad from head to toe in brilliant white
feathers. The old man warned them to stop dancing lest something terrible
happen to them.
Ignoring the old mans warning and growing more and more
hungry and lightheaded the children began to rise into the air. "If only they
had listened to me," the old man thought. As the childrens parents gathered,
one little boy heard his fathers voice below. The little boy looked down and
saw his father. At that instant he fell back to earth. The other children
continued to float higher and higher into the sky to become the Pleiades star
cluster.
The Iroquois call them Oot-kwa-tah and are reminded of these reckless children
each time they see a falling star.
Duration: 5:00
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