He wrote in the score program notes:Both were works I felt an inner compulsion to write, but both also possess meanings for me that must remain personal.
[1] Reviewing the world premiere, Elizabeth Bloom of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described the composition as "affecting" and wrote, "Featuring a pared-down orchestra without woodwinds or percussion, it opened with slow, quiet violas and plucked harp, a motif that returned later.
Haunting strings filled in to create beauty both visceral and jarring; that disturbing quality grew with the volume of added instruments, with brass entering last."
Bloom continued, "A surprising explosion of dissonance in the largely lyrical piece appeared suddenly, like an unpleasant memory.
"[3] Reviewing the West Coast premiere with Pacific Symphony, Timothy Mangan of the Orange County Register remarked, "It’s a somber and serious work, a Mahlerian adagio some 14 minutes in length, prayerful, hopeful, earnest, but tinged with darkness and dissonance and agitation."