Composer’s Note:

A Watch In The Night was composed between September 11 and November 11, 2001. It was first performed in Burlington, Vermont, on February 10, 2002, as part of a concert to memorialize the tragedy of 9/11.

The music comprises two contrasting, interlocked sections. The first unfolds three varied statements of a self-contained, very singable melody. Scattered remnants of the melody propel the agitated beginning of the second section raising the possibility of the melody’s eventual restatement. Such an eventuality becomes increasingly impossible as the music, now utterly transformed, draws to a quiet, meditative close.