Always something moves

Program note

Each movement of Always something moves is based on a phrase from Nan Shepherd’s memoir The Living Mountain. Shepherd was a hillwalker who spent her life wandering the Cairngorm  Mountains in Scotland. The title of the piece is taken from Shepherd’s observation that in nature, there’s no such thing as true silence;  “always something moves.”

"the stags were the yodelers" imitates the bellowing of Scottish red deer.

"the  antiquity of a living flower" marvels at the delicate persistence of  arctic flowers that survive brutal weather conditions year after year.

"moths  like oiled paper and moths like burnt paper" explores the strange and  beautiful ways that moths flutter through moonlight.

"precipice  after precipice glowing to rose and fading again" depicts the gradual  illumination of mountain peaks during a sunrise.