BRENT MICHAEL DAVIDS (b.1959) Requiem for America: Singing for the Invisible People (2026)
world premiere
1 Requiem aeternam – Doctrine of Discovery 2 Kyrie eleison – Poison Peace 3 Dies irae – Kieft’s War 4 Tuba mirum – Mystic Massacre 5 Liber scriptus – Debtor’s Prison 6 Quid sum miser – Gnadenhütten Massacre 7 Rex tremendae – Trail of Tears 8 Recordare – Trail of Death 9 Ingemisco – Indian Depredations 10 Confutatis – Mass Hanging 11 Lacrimosa – The Long Walk 12 Domine Jesus – Sand Creek Massacre 13 Hostias – Forced Removal 14 Sanctus – Assimilation School 15 Benedictus – Guardians Expelled 16 Agnus Dei – Bombed for Blankets 17 Lux aeterna – Wounded Knee 18 Libera me – Off-Reservation Murder 19 Threnoedia – We Are Still Here
It is my deepest desire that Requiem for America, subtitled ‘Singing for the Invisible People’, will disrupt the stereotyped mythology about America’s founding. I hope this work will force us to wrestle with our real past, and restore good relations with our Indigenous people. I created Requiem to fight for the often-buried Indigenous voices and for non-Indigenous people to listen, consider, respond and engage.
Requiem for America is about the genocidal founding of the United States and the historic – and current – invisibility of Indigenous People. Every state was stolen. Women and babies were disappeared and murdered. Resources were plundered. Cultures were destroyed. Furthermore, America’s assault on Indigenous cultures has continued to this day through persistent dehumanization.
The centerpiece of Requiem is the sole use of first-hand quotes from both the perpetrators and the victims. I have ferreted out original historic accounts from newspapers, libraries, museums, and congressional records.
A contralto narrator, in the persona of Earth, contextualizes each movement of the Requiem by illuminating specific removal events. Genocidal texts from America’s founding are juxtaposed with historic letters from American Indians themselves.
As a sort of anti-requiem, Requiem for America foregrounds our Indigenous communities to shine a light on historic injustice and to build collaborative relations with Indigenous people today. The work sings against the imposed invisibility and models the solution in performance. As George Santayana wrote in The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress (1905), ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ Through truth-singing, I hope we can collectively acknowledge the nation’s blood-soaked nativity to achieve a better future.
Requiem aeternam – Doctrine of Discovery (1493). The lyrics are taken from biblical passages and the traditional National Anthem of the United Kingdom.
Kyrie eleison – Poison Peace (1618, Virginia). In a fake offer of peace, the Jamestown colonists poisoned the Powhatans, killing hundreds.
Dies irae – Kieft’s War (1637, New York). To enrich the Dutch West India Company’s hunger for land and resources, Director General Willem Kieft butchered the Lenape People.
Tuba mirum – Mystic Massacre (1637, Connecticut). Proclaimed by Governor Winthrop as the first Thanksgiving Day, the celebration toasted their slaughter of 700 Pequots.
Liber scriptus – Debtor’s Prison (1737, Massachusetts). Within 40 years, Mohicans were driven off their land by wealthy colonists who cheated them with the crooked manipulation of debt.
Quid sum miser – Gnadenhütten Massacre (1782, Ohio). 300 Munsee, Delaware, and Mohican were tied together two-by-two and clubbed to death.
Rex tremendae – Trail of Tears (1838, Georgia). Thousands of Cherokee die on a forced march while Andrew Jackson views the genocide as a ‘benevolent’ and ‘happy consummation’.
Recordare – Trail of Death (1838, Indiana). 900 Potawatomi were evicted at gun point as soldiers marched them 1,600 miles; Dozens died on the road.
Ingemisco – Indian Depredations (1847, Utah). Mormon militias killed 100 Indians after Brigham Young held a secretive ‘Extermination Order Council Meeting’ calling for an army of men to ‘go and kill them’.
Confutatis – Mass Hanging (1862, Minnesota). 4,000 spectators watched 38 Dakota men hanged by order of Abraham Lincoln as the largest mass execution in American history.
Lacrimosa – The Long Walk (1864, New Mexico). General Carleton ordered Kit Carson to attack the Navajo, marching them 400 miles to the ‘place of suffering’.
Domine Jesus – Sand Creek Massacre (1864, Colorado). Chief Black Kettle and 200 Cheyenne agreed to peace but 700 soldiers mutilate and murder them without mercy.
Hostias – Forced Removal (1877, Nebraska). Responding to their 600-mile forced removal, Ponca Chief Standing Bear sent a telegram to President Hayes.
Sanctus – Assimilation School (1879, Pennsylvania). Indian girls and boys were removed from their homes and sent far away to a boarding school whose motto was ‘kill the Indian in him to save the man’.
Benedictus – Guardians Expelled (1882, Arizona). Revered as the ‘Guardians of the Grand Canyon’, the Havasupai were confined and driven away by Theodore Roosevelt.
Agnus Dei – Bombed for Blankets (1882, Alaska). The Navy demanded 400 blankets from a Native village that could only produce 80, so they bombed the village as a cutthroat act.
Lux aeterna – Wounded Knee (1890, South Dakota). While ghost-dancing, unarmed Lakota families were surrounded by the Seventh Cavalry; Hundreds were massacred.
Libera me – Off-Reservation Murder (1894, Wisconsin). A local game warden and a deputy murdered an Ojibwe chief for no good reason.
Threnoedia – We Are Still Here (2026). In contrast to a traditional funeral ode, the final movement declares the strength of Indigenous voices.
Requiem for America was commissioned by White Snake Projects and The Lenape Center. Thank you to the Barbican Centre and the BBC Symphony Orchestra for supporting Requiem, with foundational support from many steadfast individuals without whom the project would not have been possible. Requiem received key support from Mellon Foundation, the Native Arts & Culture Foundation’s Transformative Change + Indigenous Arts (SHIFT) program, Creative Capital Foundation, MAP Fund, Aaron Copland House, the School for Advanced Research Indian Arts Research Center, Institute of American Indian Arts, the Society for New Music, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater College of Arts and Communication, Forge Project, the University of Wisconsin-River Falls Music Program, Indiana University Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, the Northern Illinois University School of Music, Red Road Reclamation, the American Composers Forum, and the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture.
BRENT MICHAEL DAVIDS
BRENT MICHAEL DAVIDS (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape) is a music warrior for Native equity and parity, and our most seasoned Indigenous composer. Celebrating his 50th anniversary of writing music, Davids is enrolled in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, is a direct descendant of the Mohican leader Aupaumut, and is co-director of the Lenape Center in Manhattan. A composer of symphonies, works for chorus, dance, film, and opera, Davids is an experimenter at heart, walking in non-Mohican society as a professional composer yet carrying the heart of Indigenous song. Davids believes music has a community purpose, and strongly advocates for music literacy.
His new evening-length work, “Requiem for America,” that saw its premiere in London by the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, was described as “notable for its recounting of appalling acts as it is for its music…at its best the work lands its blows with remorseless integrity” (Musical America Worldwide). Recently, Santa Fe Opera has commissioned from Davids an interplanetary opera, “NOVA,” that sends a group of Native scientists to a distant planet as part of NASA, the Native American Space Agency.
Davids founded Arizona’s renowned Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP), championing Indigenous youth to write music. He designs instruments and pens performable notations as visual works of art. His works have premiered in venues around the world, such as Austria, Bermuda, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and throughout the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Disney Concert Hall, Rothko Chapel, The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors, and The Kennedy Center, including Tanglewood Music Center which is situated on his ancestral homeland.
Davids holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from Northern Illinois University and Arizona State University, respectively, studied with the Grawemeyer awarded composer Chinary Ung, trained at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute, and apprenticed with Oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare in Love). Davids received the Distinguished Alumni Awards from both universities he attended. www.filmcomposer.us
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