As One Listens to the Rain is a marriage of two distinct musical ideas. The first, a solitary, solemn melody, is introduced in the trumpet and cloaked in an aura of slowly shifting transparent harmonies. This idea soon gives way to flowing lines and falling gestures that invoke an image of cascading rainfall. A hymn-like interlude provides a brief respite before the return of the rain which, in this final form, spins and over itself.A stirring and evocative work for modern winds.
The title is taken from "A Tree Within" (1988), a poem by Octavio Paz, which captures the same duality that is the impetus for the music.