Recorded on the album Walk Across the Surface of the Sun (Albany Records)

Essentially a piano sonata in three short movements, water (falls) uses images of rain as its subject. Each movement portrays a different type of rainfall, and therefore has a distinct character. The first movement, cloudburst, is violent and explosive, a cloud suddenly opening up and releasing itself in an overwhelming gush, only to end just as unexpectedly as it began. The middle movement, a suspended liquid veil, is a gentle mist, a beautiful shroud of fine moisture hanging magically in the air, like the Kuahine rain of Mānoa Valley on the island of O‘ahu. rain down finishes the piece with the flurry of a heavy but joyous rain. Notes pour forth in a continuous rush, layer upon layer of water falling to quench the earth’s thirst, finally disappearing into the ground as if swirling down a drain. water (falls) owes much to the piano works of György Ligeti, and serves as something of an homage to him. The first and third movements draw on Ligeti’s idea of embedded resultant rhythms emerging from a single line, while the crystalline texture and lush harmonies of the second movement recall several of his piano etudes.