A fascinating corollary to the composition of the "Music for String Quartet and Percussion" was the study of potential relationships between strings and percussion the differences being quite obvious, the possible integration less so. Consequently the compositional and orchestrational (the two being intertwined) pleasure was in reversing the situation, i.e., to make the integration quite obvious and the differences less so. The character of the first movement finds verbal expression in Theodore Roethke's poem "The Wrath of Other Winds". The second movement, "The Dark Winds of Melancholy", is an instrumental transformation of the vocal setting of "Mein Bruder", from "Settings from Pierrot Lunaire". The music of "The Dark Winds of Melancholy" ties into the 3rd movement, "The Winds of Evanescence", reminisent of vanishing glae winds with sudden resurgent gusts as if expressing a reluctance, even a refusal to leave. The music is floating, rapid, and virtuosic. The virtuosity extends to the interplay between percussion and strings, but also to independent displays by both. The winds do eventually die down and then disappear into the 4th movement, "The Winds of Memory" - an atmosphere of nostalgia, at times deliberately reminding one of earlier material, particularly from the 1st movement.

I. The Wrath of Other Winds
II. The Dark Wind of Melancholy
III. The Winds of Evanescense
IV. The Winds of Memory