Expeditions Unknown: A Song History

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"Expeditions Unknown" appears in Ellen Pratt's Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 8, a book its DulcimerDownloads listing presents as a mix of traditional and contemporary ensemble music for players from beginner to advanced, with this tune set in four dulcimer parts in DAD tuning.[1] The sample page from the piece shown on that listing prints the name Ellen S. Pratt beneath the title and carries a 2022 copyright notice in her name.[1] Pratt's own contents page for the volume lists the tune in 6/8 time; that page marks "Coleman's March" and "Midnight On the Water" as traditional and credits "Pig Ankle Rag" to M.E. Williams, but adds no such credit to "Expeditions Unknown".[2]

A wagon pulled by a team of animals crossing pale sand dunes, with wheel tracks and footprints in the sand

Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Sand Dunes, Carson Desert, Nevada, albumen print from wet collodion negative, 1867. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the tune.

Pratt, a dulcimer player of more than twenty years who has composed her own tunes since about 2004, took up ensemble composition and arranging once she became a member of a dulcimer orchestra in northeastern Connecticut.[3] The sources consulted here say nothing about when or why the piece was written, or how it got its name.[1][2][3]

Our book that contains the song "Expeditions Unknown"

Sources

  1. Ellen Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 8".
  2. Ellen S. Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements for Mountain Dulcimer Volume 8".
  3. DulcimerDownloads: "Ellen Pratt".
  4. Image: Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Sand Dunes, Carson Desert, Nevada, albumen print from wet collodion negative, 1867. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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