On the Ground Where We Live

This work for orchestra in one movement was composed in 2005. The piece evokes the sense of walking through the community of an old town or city, where new sights and experiences are discovered around each corner. We sense a generally benign social-political environment in which individuals and small groups may interact harmoniously, although at times the world becomes ominous or chaotic. Individual voices are at turns confident, reflective, insistent or celebratory. As the ensemble builds, we may be entering a popular plaza. When the crowd gets too boisterous, we follow a pair of individual voices as they retreat for refuge in a quiet passage, but soon the larger forces return and build to a climatic conclusion.

ERM Media awarded On the Ground Where We Live the Masterworks Prize, and the work was recorded by the Czech Philharmonic in October 2005 for Volume 10 of the Masterworks of the New Era CD series. Buy the CD here.

Or download the recording by the Czech Philharmonic.

Performance History

Premiered February 10, 2007, by the University of Central Missouri Orchestra, Warrensburg, Missouri, directed by Dr. John P. Rutland.