Landschaft mit Kanonen (“Landscape with Canons”) was composed at the request of Timothy Oliver, who suggested the possibility of achieving a new kind of duo concertante scenario in the pairing of trumpet and violin as solo instruments in dialogue with a large wind ensemble. The opportunity to write for such a unique instrumentation also included the chance to call upon the solo playing of trumpeter Christopher Wilson and violinist Guy Harrison, and in so doing to continue to pursue an approach to composition that has been of interest to me for some time: the exploration of imitative possibilities between instruments extending beyond the realm of pitch and rhythm and into aspects of playing technique and sonority.