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- Program Notes
- This work was inspired by my travels in India. My wife was born there and she has taken me to visit a few times. Words can hardly express the beauty, complexity and energy that awaits those who first visit this amazing country. India is the birthplace of four religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. I found the spiritual and cultural juxtapositions of life in India to be fascinating and an alluring basis for the construction of my piece, which includes a broad mix of influences from Indian Classical Music, religious chant, Minimalism, Romanticism and American Popular Music. The first movement depicts the start of a typical day in India with a call to prayer, as its 1.3 billion inhabitants slip from a state of slumber to an eventual frenzy of activity. The second movement was my reaction to the historic temples you can find in South India. These sacred sites offer incredibly detailed architecture and a powerful spiritual presence which transported my state of mind beyond time and place. The last movement is about a 7 hour car ride we took from Mangalore (a coastal town on the Arabian Sea) to Bangalore (a sprawling metropolis of about 8.5 million people). If you've ever played "chicken" while traveling in the direct path of another moving object, you have an idea of what this wild journey was like. I dedicate this piece to my wife and her parents, who became U.S. citizens in 1987.