Ascension was originally composed in 1988 for Gary Hill and the UMKC Conservatory Wind Ensemble. It is dedicated to my college roommate Kenneth Wayne Hill, who was killed in action in the Persian Gulf in April, 1988, shortly before I was scheduled to begin this work. It is also lovingly dedicated to his family and to our mutual friends. Kenneth's volatile, hilarious, energetic, and complex personality formed the basis of my musical ideas, while my own emotional reactions to the news of his death and to the heroic and poignant events surrounding the last day of his life, which were released by the U.S. Marines only very slowly and ultimately in incomplete form, shaped the work's structure.

Kenneth's life was often marked by tremendous obstacles, but my lasting memory of him is one of a spirit impossible to keep down. I imagine his life and his death as one grand ascension.

The original version was composed using the technology of the day, primarily with synthesized sounds that were selected for their timbral similarity to those of the wind ensemble. In this new version, most of these sounds have been replaced with sampled sounds of various instruments, providing an even more integrated sonic environment. I am very much indebted to James Smart for suggesting this idea. In the process of putting the new accompaniment together, I also fixed several score errors, added some more audible cues, adjusted the score and the playback for more precise synchronization, and lengthened the opening gesture to aid synchronization.