This weekend, with drums and rain sticks and extra-long Indigenous flutes, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is preparing to stir the great American melting pot.

“Visions of Cahokia,” a 14-minute orchestral poem in three movements composed by James Lee III, the BSO’s composer in residence this season, explores the birth and death of a Native American city that was settled around 600 B.C. in a section of southern Illinois near St. Louis.

At its height in the 11th and 12th centuries, Cahokia included as many as 30,000 inhabitants and covered more than 50 acres — or larger than London at that time. There were burial grounds, public buildings, a central plaza for festivals and sporting events, and an astronomical observatory surrounded by wooden poles.

“The city became a major religious center of the Mississippian culture,” Lee said. “But even today, a lot of Americans still don’t know anything about it. I never heard of it myself until a few years ago.”

Around 1350 A.D., Cahokia was abandoned for reasons that remain unclear.

“Visions of Cahokia” is part of a program of weekend concerts that includes both Antonin Dvorák’s buoyant 8th Symphony, which pays tribute to the folk music of his Czech homeland that was reemerging after two centuries of suppression, and Samuel Barber’s virtuosic and fiendishly difficult Violin Concerto. The soloist in the latter piece will be the Grammy Award-winning violinist James Ehnes.

Barber’s Violin Concerto was written in 1939, and its completion was delayed by the outbreak of World War II; all three of the pieces that will be performed this weekend reflect rich and vibrant cultures threatened with extinction.

In an email to The Baltimore Sun, BSO Music Director Jonathon Heyward wrote that Lee’s composition provides “a meaningful connection to the land and its past, while giving voice to stories that are often overlooked.”

Heyward added that this weekend’s concerts “showcase the BSO’s commitment to exploring different narratives and perspectives through music,” while also highlighting Lee’s “incredible artistry.”

“Visions of Cahokia” was commissioned by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, which performed the world premiere in 2023.

In preparation, Lee visited the Cahokia Mounds twice and read as much as he could about the succession of conquering tribes who lived in the community over the centuries, including the Chickasaw, Natchez and Choctaw peoples.

Lee wrote a score for a full orchestra that also includes instruments similar to those found in the Mississippian cultures: Native American flutes, gourd-like maracas, rain sticks, rattles and lots of drums. In addition, sleigh bells, egg shakers and whistles convey the natural environment.

“There’s birdsong in my piece,” Lee said. “And the scrape of cymbals evokes bamboo sticks flying through the air.”

Lee said he was most interested in expressing the essence of this ancient civilization at its peak, not its decline.

“My composition isn’t so much a story of birth and death,” he said. “It’s about capturing Cahokia at its height. It’s basically an idea of the culture in various tableaus.”

The first movement tells a story about the building of a major metropolis; the second summons impressions of a great religious and spiritual center; and the third portrays Cahokia’s festivals, games and other public celebrations.

The first movement is called “Cahokia’s Dawn.”

“It begins with a very sparse, transparent texture to the orchestra,” Lee said.

A strong rhythmic beat for bass drums, sleigh bells and tam-tams (a kind of gong that originated in China) sounds out a march toward creation. That gradually builds into a denser orchestral texture and soaring strings signaling, Lee said, “the full-blown birth of a new civilization.”

The second movement is called “Ya Nimmi,” a Choctaw phrase meaning “faith.” It creates a sound picture of a spiritual center populated by multiple voices singing out to God in prayer.

“The movement begins with a rain stick that evokes the sound of falling water,” Lee said. An egg shaker simulates the buzz of crickets.

“It’s very soft,” Lee said. “Then there is a nice solo scored for two flutes. It’s as if we had two worshippers singing their songs of devotion.”

The third movement is named “Chukoshkomo,” a Chickasaw word meaning “play” or “game” or frolic.

The movement is set at a festival featuring Chunkey, a Native American game that resembled a cross between bowling and archery: Disc-shaped stones were rolled across the ground on their rims. Contestants threw spears at the stones and attempted to land as close as possible to the spot where the discs wobbled and fell over.

“By the time this movement ends, it’s very exciting,” Lee said. “There’s a big explosion of sound. Everyone is involved in the festivities.”

He hopes audience members will come away with a sense of a society that thrived because it incorporated people from different backgrounds and opposing points of view.

“There were so many diverse people who lived and worked in Cahokia and who made that civilization possible,” Lee said.

“The idea of many different tribes coming together almost like a melting pot was very interesting to me.”

If you go

“Visions of Cahokia” will be performed this weekend as part of the “Barber Concerto with Ehnes and Heyward” at 8 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St., and at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Music Center at Strathmore. 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. Tickets cost $27 to $99 and can be bought at bsomusic.org or by calling 410-783-8000 for the Meyerhoff or 877-276-1444 for the Strathmore.