Moon Dog

Program Notes

Moon Dog shares a name with a rare atmospheric optical phenomenon: related to halos, moon dogs occur when viewing moonlight through atmospheric ice crystals, especially in cirrus and cirrostratus clouds, which cause two faint moons (or "mock moons") to appear on either side of the moon. This occurs with both the sun and the moon—meaning that, yes, there are also sun dogs!—but moon dogs occur far more infrequently because of how much fainter the moon's light is.

(Writing this piece also introduced me to a composer, Louis Thomas Hardin, who went by the moniker of "Moondog" during his career in the mid-20th century. Hardin's music was beloved by early minimalists and jazz musicians alike—but he wasn't the root of this piece!)