Dance of the New World

Dance of the New World (1992) was completed the very month - 500 years later - that Christopher Columbus first landed in the New World. As few journeys have had such an impact on the fate of world culture, this piece is a tribute to the blending of styles and attitudes that have taken place in the "Latin" American region of this hemisphere, where Columbus first landed. It is also intended to suggest the hopeful awakening of the Renaissance that his voyage symbolized. Beginning with faint percussion patterns gradually layered one on top of the other, the work burgeons, suggesting along the way the continuing "journey" of the West over the past 500 years, in all of its intricacy, difficulty, and drama.