Nightlights was commissioned by Chris Jeans and Don Collins for Youth Brass 2000, to be used as part of their programme at the 2019 European Championships.
Written during January 2019, Nightlights received its world premiere by Youth Brass 2000, conducted by Chris Jeans with Siobhan Bates as soloist, at the 2019 European Brass Band Championships in Montreux, Switzerland.
Nightlights is intended to illustrate a winter’s evening looking out across Lake Geneva from Montreux.
Tiny lights appear beneath the mountains from faraway homes and vehicles, flickering in the distance and shimmering in the reflections on the water. Tiny, blinking nightlights against the inky blue of the clear sky. Thousands of stars shine above, blurring the boundaries between land, water, and the heavens into a sparkling ether.
Transfixed, the bustle of sounds and lights from Montreux seems a lot further away than it is in reality. Eventually, each little light blinks out, one at a time, leaving the chill of the cold night air and an empty sky.
