The title Begin in Innocence is both an admonition to myself as composer and an invitation to the performers and audience to revel innocently in the unique sounds of the organ and the diverse instruments of the wind ensemble. In writing the piece, I was inspired by the experience of watching my infant son Henry take in and respond to the astonishing world around him. I tried to approach the instruments and the musical materials with the same spirit of wonder and amazement. The piece evolved as a sort of accompanied toccata: a freewheeling invention for the organ which is alternately supported, shadowed, blurred, enveloped, and overwhelmed by the ensemble. Henry's name, spelled in musical notes, is a prominent theme. It is also reworked into a warped version of the opening melody of Lassus's motet Cum Essem Parvulus ("when I was a child").