Nico Muhly’s “Gait”: Life in Motion
The rhythmic pattern of animal and human movement formed the inspiration for Gait, a 2012 orchestral tone poem by American composer Nico Muhly (b. 1981). Muhly studied the five speeds, or gaits, of horses, documented by the 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, and then moved on to the locomotion of insects and humans. People move in distinct ways which include “a running trot” and “a lateral sequence walk.” The first steps of …