Based on the African American spiritual of the same name, Deep River "represents a slave's visions of escape, over the river (usually the Ohio). This idea carries with it a sense of energy, of freedom, even joy and the humor they imagine upon deliverance," says the composer. Those diverse and deeply-felt emotions are traced across continually transforming textures until "a sudden interruption by the whip brings them back down to the cruelty and sadness of the situation….Eventually, sadly, they recover, and quietly embrace again the distant vision they hope to realize someday."