This project is a song suite for folk band and string orchestra. I composed the piece specifically for performance by my progressive folk band, Winterbirds. The piece lasts approximately 18 minutes and is divided into four movements. The instrumentation of the string orchestra is as follows: 1st violins, 2nd violins, violas, cellos, and basses. The instrumentation of the band is as follows: voices, fiddle, bass, accordion, guitar, and piano (3rd movement only). Accompanying the score is a narrative and analytical document describing the background and musical procedures of On the Wing. I discuss harmonic idioms that appear frequently in my music, including ambiguous extended tertian chords and cross-relations arising between consonant triads. I describe my rhythmic and metric language, including the use of gapped metric envelopes that deemphasize pulses in the region of maximal pulse salience. I also address predecessors in the genres of Folk, Pop, Rock, and New Age who have collaborated with large ensembles from the Western classical music tradition
