for flute, clarinet, saxophone, horn, and percussion

revised version for string quartet

Hiking in the high country of the Rockies can be a meditatively rhythmic experience. After a while, the back-and-forth stride of your legs, the swing of your arms, and the push-and-pull of your breath fall into a steady rhythm that can be sustained for long stretches across the open tundra and rock fields. Meanwhile, as your thoughts unwind from the crowdedness of the everyday world below, curious snatches of whatever music you’ve heard or phrases you’ve read recently start to play repeatedly in your mind like tape loops on an old reel-to-reel machine. Eventually the ominous rumble of distant thunder, the lonely cry of a bird, or the alarming plink of falling rocks intrudes upon this reverie and jolts you back into the immediacy of the sensory world around you. But then the interruption subsides and the pulsing rhythm begins again in the background (or perhaps it never stopped?)…