Heartland Horizon was written after a visit to Poland in 1987 when Poland, sometimes called "the heartland of Europe", seemed a country of discontents. A government ostensibly designed to create a classless society had in effect created a privileged class of beaurocrats. With recent events giving the Polish people a new life, it remains to be seen what is on the horizon; whether, along with the best of Western democracy, they will embrace the worst of Western materialism or find a more humane path.

Heartland Horizon is actually a sextet written for three stringed instruments, each playing two complete contrapuntal parts. The piece suggests elements of Yiddish folk music.