for orchestra (3232 - 3330 - 2 percussion, piano - strings)
duration: 15 minutes

PROGRAM NOTE

Wey-Gat, Dutch for "Wind Gate", was a name early settlers gave to a section of the Hudson River between Storm King Mountain and Breakneck Mountain. Sailing north on the river, this is the place one would first encounter the Hudson Highlands, a series of tall mountains flanking the river from Stony Point in the south to Newburgh in the north.

My piece is concerned with cycles of rhythmic and melodic material, layered on top of one another and interacting in both organic and unpredictable ways. To me this relates to landscape, and how, in any given location, there are innumerable processes occurring simultaneously around us: the slow movement of the continents below us, the sun moving across the sky, the wind blowing and stopping, the daily patterns of animals and people, the photosynthetic cycle occurring in tree leaves, etc.

Commissioned by the Berkshire Symphony and Ronald Feldman, director, and premiered on April 30, 2010 in Chapin Hall, Williamstown, MA.

PERFORMANCES

April 30, 2010, at Chapin Hall, Williamstown, MA. The Berkshire Symphony; Ronald Feldman, conductor.