Wilson Creek Winds

perusal score 2025-12-28 – Wilson Creek Winds – Full Score

Grade Level: 2

D minor and 6/8 with 16ths

Program Notes

Wilson Creek Winds is set in the stark winter landscape of Wilson Creek, nestled in the Owyhee Mountains of southwestern Idaho. In this season, the terrain feels both vast and intimate—carved canyons, open ridgelines, and a quiet that seems to stretch endlessly beneath grey, overcast skies. The music reflects this subdued environment through restrained colors and spacious textures, allowing the natural contours of the landscape to shape the work’s unfolding sound world.

The piece also draws from my experiences of long-distance running in these conditions, where physical exertion gives way to mental detachment and a kind of earned stoicism. As the miles pass, thoughts simplify, emotions flatten, and awareness turns inward. This sense of solitude and clarity is expressed through calm, steady motion and a deliberate pacing that resists urgency, mirroring the measured breath and footsteps of winter running.

At the heart of the work is a powerful brass statement that rises from the muted atmosphere—a moment of true “big” sound against the otherwise restrained palette. This climax is not triumphant in a traditional sense, but elemental, reflecting the immensity of the landscape and the quiet resolve it demands. Wilson Creek Winds ultimately seeks to capture the beauty of endurance, stillness, and reflection found in Idaho’s winter high desert.