This piece was comissioned by the Great Falls Municipal band and Antonio Jarvey. When asked to write this piece, I was told to write a Grade 2-3 piece about about Montana. Since growing up there, I have always marveled at the beauty and intesity of the wilderness. I wanted to write something to capture both the power but also the eerieness of some these vast landscapes that Montana holds. I was unsure how to do this at first, as there are so many varying landscapes in Montana that would be wonderful to capture. At the end, I did my best to paint a picture of the land of the big sky as a whole.

The piece opens with the band growing upwards in sound, to retreat down under the solo alto saxophone. The saxophone holds the melody, with the band harmonizing underneath. The eighth notes passed between woodwinds at marking A indicate more movement, perhaps that of a river or the wind. The saxophone converses with the woodwinds before increasing in dynamic at B. This all fades down to a moodier section at C, where trills and a ticking in the mallets allows a switch in feeling. The saxophone has a small cadenza in free time, with the soon after return of the band slowly building up to the climactic moment of the piece. Withdrawing once more, the piece closes with brief swells in instrumentation, before ending all together as one.