In responding to conductor David Alan Miller's request for piece inspired by one of the European voyages of exploration, I took as my subject Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto's 1540 expedition into what we now call Georgia and the Carolinas. Expedition logs written by de Soto's secretary Rodrigo Ranjel took particular interest in the sounds of this new land in a way that can only be described as musical—the calls of strange birds the company had never heard before, the chattering of insects and other animals scurrying in the vegetation. It must have been thrilling to hear sounds that no other European had literally ever heard before.
My piece, then, is not really about de Soto himself so much as the experience of hearing the sounds of someplace mysterious and unfamiliar. The piece begins with a seemingly random chatter of percussive effects, simulating the sounds of nature. Slowly, longer, folk-like lines begin to emerge and sing a more human song–perhaps in awe and appreciation, perhaps in excitement.
– Dan Visconti