‘What comes through most in Trans (1996), a three movement work of less than twenty minutes, is Mr. Hyla’s ability to find thematic threads and structural integrity in music that seems mercurial and volatile. His pungent harmonic language, containing tonal and atonal elements, eludes description. All you can say in the end is that he pieces his pitches according to what sounds right to his keen ears, not according to some system or notion. The counterpoint is ingenious: pumped-up polyphonic lines fight it out in high registers atop a protective mat of sustained, stable chords.’ – Anthony Tommasini, New York Times 6/13/04