This piece was composed for the Schiedmayer Celesta Firm’s 3rd International Composition Competition, celebrating 200 years of the Schiedmayer Firm in Stuttgart, Germany in 2009. Scored for Celesta and Strings, the music was inspired by a rekindling of my lifelong interest in astronomy and paints a picture of a vibrant, expansive and mysterious night sky.

     The work begins with a simple bass ostinato in the celesta, then layers on a percussive melody punctuated with crisp sparkling harmonies. The opening pizzicato strings soon turn mournful, even desperate, as if expressing the futility of life amidst this tremendous universal vastness. Building to a cry of tremendous sorrow, the strings eventually exhaust themselves and ultimately let go to the magic of possibility. The vibrancy of the opening section returns and our true musical exploration of the heavens begin. Wide pizzicato chords, fragmented solo melodies, sharp celesta tremelos; stars, moons, nebulae, and black holes. A mysterious modal theme appears as a chamber ensemble of celesta, solo violin, solo viola, and solo cello take us deeper into the realms of imagination. All of this activity comes to a halt and the sky becomes deceptively quiet just before opening completely as the true wonder and beauty of the universe is ultimately revealed....