The Celestial Vault

The Celestial Vault was commissioned by Robert Fought and the University of Nebraska 

Concert Band. It is approximately 12 minutes long and consisrs of five sections, each reflecting 

characteristics of familiar stars, 

Vega, (young Blue giant rushing towards the Earth): An ascending arpeggio introduces

the principle pitch material for the entire piece. Some of these notes (D C B E F# A) are 

reassembled in an aleatoric passage that, after a serio-comic D minor cadence is transformed 

into the Blue Shift Riff, a heterophonically orchestrated crescendo of a sixteenth-note melody, 

alternating 2/4 and 7/16 meters.This section ends with a massive cadence on G minor, leading 

directly to Mira (variable star that regularly brightens and dims). Mira consists of a six-note 

klangfarben chords, each a different cluster wihin an A-D perfect fourth. Perseids (meteor 

shower) features a chamber ensemble of piccolo, celeste, and glockenspeil playing silvery

grace-note traceries. Antares ( red giant) featruing the lower brass and timpani, contains the 

most intense music of the piece. While there is a hint of Eb minor, most of Antares using tone

 clusters. This segues to a seven second Supernova, employing graphic notation and improvisation.

Sirius (the brightes star in the heavens, rushing away from Earth) is in C Lydian, and contains

 the most traditional band music of the work. Its broad melody leades to the Red Shift Raptus, 

a jazzy, syncopated riff, gradually dimisnishing in volume and texture wit each repetition.