Up From the Pit was commissioned by flutist Deanna Little through a Creative Activity Grant from Middle Tennessee State University. It is featured on the recording The Dolly Project: New music for flute inspired by the music of Dolly Parton, and was performed by Dr. Little, flute, Christine Kim, cello, and Windell Little, piano.

Up From the Pit is based on a section of the biblical account of Joseph, which is used symbolically in Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors. In the story Joseph, the favored son of the patriarch Jacob, is stripped of his colorful garment, thrown into a cistern, and sold by his jealous brothers to Midianite merchants. He eventually is sold into slavery in Egypt.

Drawing extra-musical inspiration from Psalm 40 and Genesis 37, the initial musical motive climbs slowly (out of the pit) through shifting minor harmonic centers. This parallels Joseph’s rising from his predicament only to be betrayed in the hands of slave traders. A tense B section unfolds as the long desert journey to Egypt ensues. Building in musical tension as the original harmony and melody develops, Joseph’s brother Reuben returns to the scene intending a rescue, only to find the pit empty. Realizing that he is too late, he utters in desperation “Where can I turn now?” Faced with a choice of pursuing Joseph or staying silent, he chooses the latter, with a return to halting restatements of fragments of the original melody by cello, flute, and piano individually.

The irony of this story is that the trials of Joseph, much like Dolly Parton’s childhood poverty, served to strengthen him. In time, Joseph would save his entire family from starvation after his years of suffering as a slave, as an unjustly condemned prisoner, and a dramatic ascension to Pharaoh’s right hand. Just as Parton’s coat was a symbol of her mother’s love that inspired her creativity, Joseph’s coat is a symbol of a father’s (or Father’s) love and salvation in times of injustice, persecution, and suffering.