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StarRise: Images of a Night Sky
Sunset begins with the sun burning, white-hot and intense, just on the horizon, at day's end. As it sinks slowly below the horizon it turns a deep crimson red, horizontally laced with white streaks of cloud. Gradually disappearing from view, the sky becomes a dimmer, paler hue of rose, the sun is no longer visible. All is blackness.
Star Bright begins with the first star of the night sky becoming visible. This is followed by the gradual addition of more and more stars until the night sky is brilliantly illuminated by star light.
Shooting stars begins with the ebony backdrop of the night sky being startlingly broken by a shimmering and rapidly disappearing shooting star. As time passes, another shooting star streaks towards fiery oblivion, followed by another and another, until the night sky is left with but the remembrance of the magnificent luminosity.
Moonbeams begins with the full moon beaming down strong and bright, lighting the night sky almost as if it were day. A cloud drifts across the face of the moon and the brightness abruptly dims, casting all about in a hazy darkness in which very little is clearly visible. Openings in the cloud allow streaks of moonbeams to cascade down, once again illuminating all around. The clouds drift aimlessly and the moon beams on, and off, then on again.
Sunrise begins with the quiet night sky in it's last moment of repose before it begins to awaken from the magical and almost mystical, nightly imagery, The sky gradually brightens more and more, and all around appears afresh in the crystalline dawn of a new beginning.
StarRise: Images of a Night Sky was written for the Sand Creek Junior High School Band, Sand Creek, Michigan, Richard Farley, director, on the occasion of their performance at the A.S.B.D.A. National Convention at Interlochen, Michigan on June 26, 1987.
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