In the words of composer David Maslanka: “I am strongly affected by American folk songs and hymn tunes, and I think of this Symphony and “old songs remembered”. With one exception all the tunes are original, but they all feel very familiar. The borrowed melody is from the 371 Four-Part Chorales by J.S. Bach. Each song has a bright side and a dark side, a surface and the dream underneath. Each is a signal or call which evokes an inner world of associations.”

1. Sunday night church services from my youth. Mrs. Smith played the piano. The opening piano solo is marked “enthusiastically” in the score. A dream travels to a far place.
2. In the manner of an American folk song, with a setting that might have come out of the 19th or early 20th centuries.
3. A ferocious fast music, unrelenting, determined to get a grip on chaos. Toward the end a fractious quote of the Bach Chorale melody “Du Friedensfurst Herr Jesu Christ” (Prince of Peace Lord Jesus Christ).
4. A simple song of peace and healing