Two Passages is a complex work whose origins are found in a planned six-movement piano suite (Twelve Images). While only one movement was completed (Caverns), sketches for another became the foundation for the second movement of Two Passages.
| I. By Way of Mountain | II. By Way of Desert |
|---|---|
| For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor I will gasp and pant. I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools. And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, “You are our gods.” – Isaiah 42:14-17 |
Thus says the LORD:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust in the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” – Jeremiah 17:5-8 |
I. By Way of Mountain is an open, wandering movement which ebbs and flows before eventually making its way to a triumphal climax. Overlapping motifs, generally in the woodwinds, contrast with chordal sections, often creating polymetrical effects. The whole movement is generally neotonal, light and almost playful in character, and in a way, quite superficial, characteristics meant to symbolize ‘the triumph of human acheivement’. The movement ends on a triumphant A-flat major triad, but lying beneath this is a bare perfect fifth of G and D which is revealed once the strings and brass cut off and holds through the first few bars of the second movement.
II. By Way of Desert stands in stark contrast to the lightness and openness of the preceding movement. Its foundation is a plodding 11 note bass progression in perfect fifths, over which come several fragmentary motifs interacting with interweaving woodwind lines based on a single cyclic progression to create a confused and tangled texture. The movement reaches its climax in a desperate cry just before it falls quickly away to the sparseness whence it came, ending with the same notes as the first movement, but without the major third between the A-flat and E-flat. When placed in contrast with the first movement, its symbolic significance is obvious.