Of the three works in this collection, Reflective Path has the least secure provenance and by some distance the most devoted following. It was found folded into the service manual of a 1974 Oldsmobile Delta 88, between the section on wheel bearings and the section on the heater core, in handwriting the composer has described as "probably mine."

What makes the piece unusual is that it survives in two complete settings of the same material, and that Cilwa has consistently refused to designate either as the definitive one. Asked directly, he has said only that the second is what happened to the first, which the scholarship has found unhelpful.

The practice of this edition is to present both, in the order in which they appear in the manual. Listeners are invited to form their own view and are asked to keep it to themselves, the literature on this question having grown quite large enough.

Reflective Path

By Paul S Cilwa

Listen to both settings in sequence:

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The Settings

The shorter of the two, and the more disciplined. The xylophone is treated here as a keyboard instrument that has mislaid its keyboard, which is very nearly what it is.

Two and a half times the length, and considerably damper. The title is not an attribution but a warning.