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Coyoteway is an outgrowth of my study of the Navajo healing ceremony of the same name. It is one of four quartets that form a cycle based on episodes from the Navajo creation story, and it is dedicated to Navajo elder and spiritual leader John Co'ií Cook. The Ancestors is both inspired by a Charles Stegeman painting of the same title, and by the myriad associations that it conjured up, especially the many Native American overtones that resonated around and within me throughout my childhood years. A Distant Voice Calling is another one of my Navajo quartets. Its title refers to Talking God, who calls forth the world s inhabitants as he advances from the East, bringing wisdom, medicine, ceremony and life for future generations. Snake Dance refers to Hopi kachinas and ceremony, and reflects my acquaintance with music and culture of other tribes as well. It was inspired also by Indian art (Jerome Tiger paintings, for example) and the sound of gourd rattles used in the plaza dances.