Inspired by a drive along Colorado’s Million Dollar Highway (US 550), “Across the Valley” captures the feeling of winding through the mountains and coming upon the town of Ouray, nestled quietly between the ridges of the Rockies. The landscape felt both vast and intimate, which sparked the idea for this piece.
To portray a valley between two ridges, the music follows the structure of the sonata form. The exposition begins with a falling motif, descending into the valley. The development reflects the night spent there, looking up at a sky free of light pollution. The recapitulation returns the opening material as we depart the valley, bringing the development’s motif along as a “souvenir”. Throughout the piece, call-and-response and canonic gestures suggest the echoes and reverberations that linger between the mountains.

ca. 6 min.
*individual movements may be performed separately

*Available upon request.
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