In April 2006, I was asked to write a piece for Port Credit Secondary School's string orchestra to play on their trip to Vienna in April 2007. The piece was completed in October 2006, with some advice from my professor, David Lidov, on how to provide better balance for the strings. The following is the program note I included with the original score: There comes a time in the evening to step outside from the party; to vanish, if only temporarily, from the excitement of the crowd and to walk down the nearby path in the woods where there is silence. The lights and noise and blurred energy behind you are replaced with a new awareness of your surroundings; the starlit shadows bring about a new sense of consciousness - both relaxed and awake, drowsy but alert; passionate, but still calmly restrained as you begin to feel from the small vacuum in time you�ve made for yourself, a contemplation of life�s unstoppable forward march; the steadfast tin soldier in a world of emotion.