The moon one circle; stars numberless; sky dark green. Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) My Night Pieces, apart from Stars, were first performed at the 1971 Festival of Perth, for which they were written. The opening bracket of pieces is based on a Japanese concept known as setsugekka, which means, literally, ‘snow, moon and flowers’. This concept is concerned with metamorphosis: moonlight, for instance, may make snow of flowers, and flowers of snow; and the moon itself may be viewed as an enormous snowflake or a giant white flower. The music of these three pieces, and of Stars, is concerned with transformations of similar harmonic and motivic structures. Night, on the other hand, is a free transcription of a part of my orchestral work Sun Music I (1965). It is related to the other pieces in its gong-like punctuation and its harmonic usage. Snow, Moon and Flowers is dedicated to Michael Hannan, Night to Anne Boyd and Stars to Peter Kenny. Peter Sculthorpe Duration: c. 7 minutes