River of Sorrows is my musical impression of the life and history of cultures built around the River. Its pastoral peacefulness, its power and source of life, and its mysterious grandeur has caused and still causes cultures to act recklessly, both towards the natural artery that sustains it but also to other humans who might need the river's resources.
A book titled Juniata: River of Sorrows by Dennis McIlnay inspired this piece. It explores not only the recreational and leisurely aspect of the Juniata River of central Pennsylvania, but the rich history of the Native and European inhabitants of this area. As this book provided the inspiration and historical background on one river, the Juniata, the work was written thousands of miles away near the Seine River in Paris, France, during the summer of 2005.
The piece opens with a figure heard throughout the work--a simple rhythm of an eighth and two sixteenth notes--which is passed around the ensemble while the main theme is developed in
