Walter H. Rubsamen Music Library

This piece was inspired by a video of a Ukrainian violinist playing this Ukrainian folk melody in a bomb shelter.

Nich yaka misyachna (The night is so moonlit) speaks of love and a beautiful starlit night. However, the melody is set here with dissonance, using a tone row to create tension between the beauty and comfort of the folk melody against the war, turmoil and fear of those sheltering underground.

The tone row is used in prime and retrograde transpositions, and for harmonic clusters.     

Prime Row 0: Eb-A-F-F#-C-E-D-Bb-C#-G-B-Ab