I. Prelude I had Aaron Copland’s lovely piece titled “Muted and Sensuous” from his Four Piano Blues in mind when writing this short work. A watery set of parallel chords spins out absentmindedly, gathering new textural shimmers as the work progresses.

II. Riff and Chant Following a short introductory fantasy, a crystalline chord sequence begins in the upper reaches of the piano. Soon this Messiaen-like music is joined by three-munks, contributing a dark chant melody from an imagined religious tradition. Caught up in the fervor, our upper-chord sequences breaks apart transforming into an off-kilter single-voices line. The work concludes with our trio of monks ascending into a falsetto range, finally settling somehow in C major.