Movement 1
The Pima/Maricopa, descendants of the Hohokam, tell of the “Man in Maze.” The legend, which is taught to all Pima and Maricopa children, depicts the experiences that occur during the journey through the maze of life. While negative events happen, children are told that, ultimately, each person can discover a physical, mental, social and spiritual balance. At the center of the maze are one’s dreams and goals. When one reaches the center, the legend describes that each person is met by the Sun God who blesses and greets us and passes us on to the next world. - Wikipedia

I, Se-eh-ha, call to you, my River People,
Call to you, my Akimel Au-Authm
My Xalychidom Piipaash, call to you, my
People Who Live Toward the Water. I,
Se-eh-ha, I, the Man in the Maze, recall to
You the eyes of your inmost visions, call to you
With the singing voices of your grandparents,
Their parents, their parents and grandparents
Before them. I, the Man in the Maze, call you
To listen as I weave my words into you, weave
You into my words, lead you into the Maze of
My making for I am the Man in the Maze and
You are the people of my dreaming.

-- Martha Kirby Capo

In the first movement, one senses the forward movement of a person plodding into this maze of life; a theme overlaid with the "singing voices" of encouragement from ancestors who have gone before. As the movement develops, the accompanying steps of companions through life can be heard, and the stride become surer and more confident. As the traveler reaches the center of this world's maze and stands at the threshold of the next, this movement is dramatically cut short by the second movement.

Movement 2

Wheels shriek and spark
With purpose; gondolas,
Flatcars, reefers, hoppers,
Indistinct and blurred,
Hurrying to someplace else,
Engines writhe and hiss,
Pulsing with desire to
Run, to run to. Run!
Cinders drift slowly:
Soft, sooty snowflakes,
Tiny specks of progress
Left behind.

-- Martha Kirby Capo

The sound of railway workers hammering ties into the earth foretells the second movement: a representation of a powerful train which cuts through the first movement, driving forward and bringing the listener with it on a powerful ride until at last it slows to a musical whistle-stop.

Movement 3
The Gila River would be a perennial stream carrying large volumes of water, but irrigation and municipal water diversions turn it into a usually dry river. Below Phoenix to the Colorado River, the Gila is usually either a trickle or completely dry. The Gila River a long time ago was navigable by boats from its mouth to near the Arizona - New Mexico border. After the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848, the Gila River served as a part of the border between the United States and Mexico until the Gadsden Purchase (1853) soon extended American territory well south of the Gila. - Wikipedia

Once, I sang a maiden’s song:
I am the Brazo de Mira flores;
Domingo del Castillo watched as I slipped
Wet and wanting, into my lover’s salty
Mouth, twisting and tumbling in my
Eagerness. I cared not for the land
Wars of men--pah!--why should I,
I who have danced under the Tall Pines
Since the time before time?

-- Martha Kirby Capo

The beautiful rondo of the 3rd movement brings the tone of the composition back down to a fluid, rolling melody representing the song of the Gila River. The A section of this rondo occurs three times: first as a maiden's song, then as a humming song, and last as the dying song of a river that "can't remember how to dance." The oboe is the Gila River's partner in crime, the Colorado River, which carries both its and the Gila River's waters to the ocean's "salty mouth." The B section is a musical expression of the ecstasy of the salty kiss greeting the fresh waters, and the C section echoes the railroads being built by men, happily ignored by the unwary Gila river. As the Gila dies, the oboe reflects great sadness of losing its dance partner.

Movement 4
The name "Phoenix" was first suggested as a name for Arizona's best known city by Lord Darrell Duppa, as the name described a city born from the ruins of a former civilization. - Wikipedia

This is the story of the Valley of the Sun,
Of Hachpa 'Anya Nyava, of Skikik, of Phoenix,
Risen from the work of our ancestors,
The Hohokam, weavers of the water,
Seeders of the Valley. We are the people
Who have walked the maze of our inmost
Visions and who now give life to our dreams.
We are ancient; we are newborn; we are Arizonans.

-- Martha Kirby Capo

The fourth movement opens with a simple, pastoral melody evocative of a purer bygone period, and quickly builds on it -- much as the passage of time builds layers of history upon the land. Musically, the pioneer period is represented by melodies reflective of the orchestral "Americana" style, followed by the the sound of railway construction, eventually crescendoing into a bombastic representation of modernity, including reprises from earlier in the work.