PDF Download

Year Composed: 2024

Duration: 12 minutes

Score video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_lyihNrKVc

“12,000 Years: Water and Stone” is inspired by the waterfalls and gorges in Watkins Glen State Park in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The work is loosely programmatic, and illustrates the experience of walking along a hiking trail in the park, seeing waterfall after waterfall (the park boasts 19). I approached this pictorially, with the flute representing the shape of flowing water and the marimba embodying layers of sedimentary rock which the water courses over, around, and through. The gorge was carved out over the last 12,000 years by water eroding the rock and splitting it during annual freeze-thaw cycles, leaving breathtaking formations in the stone. This process of erosion was kickstarted by receding glaciers at the end of the last glacial period which left behind deep glacial valleys, becoming the Finger Lakes. Walking along the gorge is like traveling through time, with layers of rock millions of years old carved out in the blink of an eye, in geologic timescales. On a personal note, walking this trail brings me back to my childhood, spending countless summer days with my family hiking and marveling at the waterfalls.