by Don Freund

A folksong-like pentatonic phrase is introduced, pure and universal as the wind, followed by a middle phrase of chromatic elements. These altered colors, and a more individualistic expressiveness become more pronounced in a dramatic section, unleashing an array of gestures and nuances which unite the primeval sound of the flute with personalized characterizations: playful, pleading, mysterious, struggling, rocking, and culminating in a primitively wild section. An avalanche follows that gives way to the opening stanza. However, this reappears as a memory, more freely expressive in its metrical structure but recaptured with a resolute determination.