Written for and premeired by Sospiro Winds, this work is in four movments.   The first is lyrical and plaintive.  The second is based on a chorale that is heard in its complete form only at the end of the movement; throughout the bulk of the movement, harmonies from the chorale are fragmented and dispersed amongst the instruments.  The third movement, Quasi Barcarolle, has an undulating, slowly evolving character, as repeated patterns unfold at different speeds simultaneously.  The title of the final movement, ‘Harsh and Exciting” is at once a performance indication and also a reference to Mary Oliver’s well known poem “Wild Geese”:

 

...Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.