The Los Angeles River is a single movement from the larger orchestral work The Mulholland Suite for Orchestra . The piece explores themes of nature, memory, transformation, and the relationship between the land and the growth of Los Angeles. The music reflects the beauty of the Los Angeles River as William Mulholland first encountered it in the late 1800s — an awe-inspiring landscape of tranquil water flowing through willow trees, inspiring his decision to make Los Angeles his home. At times lyrical and cinematic, the work evokes the movement of water, early California landscapes, and the energy of a rapidly expanding city. The piece is connected to Sprigg’s larger orchestral project, The Mulholland Suite , which explores the history of water and the development of Los Angeles through the story of William Mulholland and the aqueduct system that transformed Southern California. Rather than telling a literal story, The Los Angeles River invites listeners to experience the emotional character of the river itself — peaceful, restless, and deeply connected to the history of Los Angeles.

This movement tells the story of William Mulholland and his mentor Fred Eaton’s 1904 journey from Los Angeles to the Owens Valley. Eaton convinced Mulholland to see the valley’s water supply firsthand, believing it could meet the growing needs of a rapidly expanding Los Angeles during a time of drought. The music reflects the vast landscapes they traveled through: open desert, snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains, canyons, and dry riverbeds, before reaching the Owens River, a striking ribbon of water bringing life and green farmland to the valley. As the journey continues, the music acknowledges the farms, orchards, and communities already dependent on this water. It then turns darker as Mulholland realizes that taking the river south could help Los Angeles grow, but at the cost of an existing way of life in the Owens Valley and the parting of ways with his mentor, Fred Eaton.

This movement reflects the tragic night of the St. Francis Dam collapse. The music begins with Ace Hopewell, the lone known witness, riding his motorcycle along dark mountain roads just as the dam gave way. It then turns to The Rising House , portraying the dam keeper’s home below the dam—where his wife and children lived—swept away and destroyed by the sudden flood. The music moves from uneasy motion to overwhelming force, honoring both the human experience and the immense loss of that night.

The Last Road Home follows William Mulholland in the aftermath of the St. Francis Dam disaster. As dawn breaks after a night of destruction and loss, Mulholland—exhausted after nineteen hours of continuous work—accepts full responsibility for the tragedy. Visibly broken and defeated, he is finally urged by his staff to rest. The music follows his silent drive home with his chauffeur, bearing the weight of grief and guilt, yet holding to the truth that the good he had done for Los Angeles never left his soul. Still, the disaster—one that would never leave him—darkened that truth, leaving him in a place of deep, private ambivalence that only Mulholland could understand.

This movement represents the end of the Mulholland story: A reflection of his life. It’s a pondering of the ambiguities of Shakespearean proportions. The music recalls Mulholland’s journey of discovery, creativity, engineering and building. His rise to the highest mountain, the celebrations, and heroism. Then the water wars, the disaster, oblivion, his depths of despair, and the almost instant “erasing” of Mulholland from the public’s conscience. The music is the arch of Mulholland’s meteoritic rise and fall, and if the Mulholland story was a movie, this music is with the film’s end titles. The music is sad and sweet, but it falls on the side that Mulholland was in fact an honorable civil servant, whose efforts brought water to Los Angeles, that in turn brought people from all over the world to reside as their home. The Blood of the Soil were words that Mulholland himself heard from a fellow Mexican ditch digger in the late 1870’s while clearing the mud lined ditches of the early water systems of Los Angeles. The Mexican ditch digger cupped the muddy water in his hands and said to Mulholland in Spanish, “The Blood of the Soil”, water . ​ Little did Mulholland know this saying would be an omen of his future.

This movement represents the long ride home from the Owens Valley, and the schemes Mulholland and Eaton wove together to make the Owens Valley water their own for Los Angeles some 233 miles south. It all seemed utterly impossible. However, impossible was a concept neither Mulholland, nor Eaton paid much attention. ​ Mulholland focused on the engineering requirements, astonished to conclude that gravity alone might move the water from the high elevations of the Owens Valley to the near sea level of Los Angeles. There was also the civic requirements, the politics, federal approvals, city boosters, and the extraordinary sums of money required to fund what would be fourth largest engineering project in American History. Eaton imagined the massive patchwork of water rights along the 233 mile long journey that must be secured. Only an entrepreneurial mind like Eaton’s, a former Water Department Superintendent himself, and the former Los Angeles Mayor, would have the engineering, creativity, and business mind to dream and believe it was all actually achievable. And to complicate things more, Mulholland, friends of Eaton for over 25 years, could never have imagined that the plans they crafted together to move the Owens water to Los Angeles were not what they appeared. Eaton had double crossed his friend to put himself in a position to be enriched at the expense of the City of Los Angeles, and the cost of a lifelong friendship. This was the end to a friendship, and the beginning of a rivalry that lasted over the next 25 years with consequences that no one could have imaged. These men are two of Los Angeles’s most influential citizens, they were The Rainmakers.

Details, score resources, and project information for Film Music.

The day is cold. Below a high bluff, a braided river winds through the valley beneath breaking clouds. Near a quiet fire, a small band of hunter-gatherers watches from their ancient camp. The flames flicker across their faces as mammoths appear—slow, immense, and ancient—moving steadily across the open riverbed. The young hunters grip their spears, eager to prove themselves. But an elder speaks, cutting through the tension: “Today, we will not hunt. We will watch them pass, and thank them for the life they have given.” Mammoth Steps , composed for the Composing in the Wilderness 2025 Festival in Fairbanks, Alaska , imagines such a moment—perhaps at the Teklanika West archaeological site in Denali National Park. Evidence shows humans once used this bluff as a lookout for game, more than 13,000 years ago. Along the Teklanika River corridor, mammoth remains have also been found, placing humans and mammoths within the same braided valley, the same time, the same shared life. This work does not depict a specific Indigenous story; rather, it offers a meditation on restraint, reverence, and coexistence, honoring the ancient peoples of Interior Alaska and the living Native nations whose ancestral lands include Denali.

Odyssey, Opus 1 — youth orchestra live recording.

This movement, composed on piano, is for the Mulholland Suite for Orchestra and is in its initial stage of development preceding orchestration. The piece represents Mulholland’s wife Lillie Ferguson, who he married on July 3, 1890, thus the title Beloved. The Mulhollands had five children, and Lillie remained a devoted wife out of the spotlight shared by her husband. At the time of Mulholland’s greatest achievement as the Builder of the Los Angeles Aquaduct, a celebration was planned to commemorate the opening of the Cascade’s gates to allow the Owens River water to flow into Los Angeles for first time. With 40,000 spectators there to witness the historic event, Mulholland gave the signal to his men to “open the gates.” Lillie was at the top of his concern though that day, as she remained at home bedridden with cancer with an expectation she may not survive much longer. Mulholland celebrated with the crowd, and then hurried home to be with her. Lillie died a couple of years thereafter.

This piece of music captures the emotional finale of the film The Pitch, available on Amazon Prime and the recipient of numerous film and music awards. The music underscores the film’s concluding scene, where the father and coach realizes that nurturing his relationship with his wife and daughter is more important than pursuing a divorce. Inspired by his daughter’s miraculous play on the softball field, which epitomizes his coaching mantra, “never quit,” he resolves not to give up on his family.​ ​

Details, score resources, and project information for Goodnight Zoom.

Details, score resources, and project information for My Little Rose.