Whilst drawing upon passages from the slow movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, this work pays additional homage to Stravinsky (Petrouchka, The Rite of Spring and The Symphony of Psalms), Bartok (Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta), Schoenberg (Piano Suite opus 25), Steve Reich (Piano Phase) and more obliquely to others. Though the individual voices of these composers are echoed in the music, 'Moonlighting' remains essentially an expression of my own aesthetic.

The music was commissioned by Scottish Dance Theatre (with funds provided by the Arts Council of Scotland and The National Lottery) for the contemporary dance piece 'Playfall'. Choreography was by Janet Smith (to whom credit is gladly given for the original idea of using Beethoven's music), the score was recorded for performance by Julian Hellaby and Catherine Laws and the first performance took place at Dundee Repertory Theatre on 25 February 1998, followed by an extensive UK tour.

In making 'Playfall' into a concert piece, I have substantially expanded the material and included sections that were not used for the dance. Because the recording included here is of the original Playfall music, it differs from Moonlighting (and hence the downloadable score) as follows:

1st Movement: Moonlighting has an extra section at the start
2nd Movement: No change
3rd Movement: No change
4th Movement: Moonlighting is slightly extended
5th Movement: Does not appear at all in Playfall
6th Movement: No change
7th Movement: Moonlighting has an extra section at the start and considerably extends the ending.

photo: Gerold Hinsen