D a v i d   V e s s

'Roan Mountain Air' grew out of memories of my hometown, Spruce Pine, NC. It is a small mining town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, where the Roan rose in the distance from my back porch. Geologically speaking, these mountains are very old and world-weary. I find them to be a place where you can almost hear the whispers of old happenings, as if stepping into someone else's memories — strange echoes, perhaps, of travelers long past. This piece for reed quintet traces that soundscape: the shimmer of wind chimes, a half-remembered hymn tune, a distant whistle. A calm opening gives way to a daydream that climbs with gathering energy, ascending toward the peak of the Roan. Suddenly the ground drops away and the full weight of the height lands all at once. And yet it is here, in that imagined stillness, where those quiet songs and teeming memories disappear, dissolving into the cool, clear 'Roan Mountain Air'.