DescriptionConductor's baton owned by composer and conductor Jesus Martinez. The baton is made up of a white-painted metal stick and rubber and wood bulb handle. This baton was used during the premiere performance of "3 Hours In Dallas" at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on the evening of Wednesday, November 21, 2019 during a week of assassination anniversary programming hosted at the Museum. Mr. Martinez used this baton to conduct The Sam Houston High School Percussion Ensemble in their performance of "3 Hours In Dallas."
The baton was loaned to the Museum by Mr. Martinez for the purpose of the 2020 Art Reframes History exhibition (September 09, 2020 - April 04, 2020).
Curatorial Commentary
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)
The Sixth Floor Museum commissioned Jesus Martinez to compose two musical works in 2019. The first commemorated the Museum’s 30th anniversary in February 2019. The second, which debuted in November 2019, provided the score to a film created by the Museum featuring home movies and news footage from its collections to tell the story of the Kennedys’ three-hour visit to Dallas on November 22, 1963. Martinez explores the emotional context of the assassination as well as the interconnectedness of the generations affected by the tragedy.
“Part of the work is meant to be very programmatic and very vivid, as well as going through the course of mourning and then lastly, ending in a very hopeful sense to… inspire newer generations,” Martinez said. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
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
