Score for "3 Hours In Dallas" by Jesus Martinez

Exhibit Label: Originally from San Juan, Texas, in the part of the state known as “the Valley,” Jesus Martinez grew up in a musical family. He always wanted to be a drummer and was a member of the high school marching band. He attended his first orchestra concert in college and fell in love with orchestral music. Martinez describes himself as a programmatic composer: he finds a story that captivates him, that is something he feels he could invest his time in, and then creates music for it. He spoke Spanish first as a child, then English, but today he sees music as the universal language, the best way for him to tell stories. (Special exhibit, "Art Reframes History," on view on the Museum's seventh floor from September 9, 2020 through May 9, 2021) 

"3 Hours In Dallas" was written for numerous percussion instruments and a trumpet in B flat. The composition consists of 8 staffs of percussion music; the top staff is for the trumpet. A full list of the percussion instrumentation used in this piece is printed on the reverse of the first page of the bound score. "A Note On The Commission" and "About The Composer" are printed on the first page of the score. "Program Notes" are printed below the title on the third page of the score. - Jan Masterson, Collections Cataloger

The composition has no independent movements but there are distinct changes in the music that align with a shift in the film footage. Those sections include the following: "Clouds" at measure 7, "Air Force One Touches Down" at measure 37, "Air Force One stops" at measure 51, "Environment Speech" at measure 106, "Atomic Bomb" at measure 125, "Motorcade Crosses" at measure 133, "Legacy Speech" at measure 188, "For the Arts" at measure 206, "CHEST SHOT" at measure 251, "HEAD SHOT" at measure 253, "Pronounced Dead" at measure 287, "Market Street" at measure 305, "Love Field" at measure 320, and "'We are all mortal'" at measure 334. - Jan Masterson, Collections Cataloger

At sixteen and a half minutes, "Three Hours in Dallas" represents the longest compilation of historic motorcade footage ever produced by The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Creating a lengthy, silent video for a yet-to-be-composed score was an interesting and exciting challenge. In selecting footage, we worked closely with Jesus Martinez to capture all of the familiar scenes while trying, at every turn, to view them from a slightly different angle to make "Three Hours in Dallas" a unique experience, almost like witnessing the events of that day firsthand. During development of the compilation, we recognized the need to humanize President Kennedy and decided to incorporate his own words on key issues throughout the Dallas parade to remind, or inform, audiences what he represented and why his death so deeply impacted the nation and the world. After its premiere in November 2019, "Three Hours in Dallas" with a recorded studio score regularly played on a loop in the Museum's Seventh Floor Gallery until March 2020. -- Stephen Fagin, Curator