The Ring of Fire and Love last about 9 minutes and is cast in a single movement. The piece is named after the Ring of Fire—a volcanic belt surrounding the Pacific Ocean in which most of the world's earthquakes occur. "Ring of fire" also refers the phenomenon that takes place during a solar eclipse when the moon blocks all but the outside ring of the sun. Additionally, as the composer wrote in the score program note, "the same expression is also used to describe what a woman feels when, as she gives birth, the baby's head passes through her pelvis. That moment is the most dangerous in the baby's life, its little skull being subjected to enormous pressure, preparing it for life in a way unlike any other." She concluded, "The Ring of Fire and Love is a work for orchestra about this earth-shattering, creative, cataclysmic moment they travel through together."[1]
The work is scored for an orchestra comprising two flutes (both doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets (2nd doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, three percussionists, harp, celesta, and strings.[1]