Halcyon Nights is a one-movement piece for orchestra, ca. 9\sp′, in five-part arch-form with two inserted sections: A B C B\sp′ ⟨fugue⟩ A\sp′ ⟨coda⟩. The piece opens with an English horn solo, from which a great deal of cellular musical ideas, with broad-scale formal ramifications, are derived. This set of gestures and two other fundamental musical ideas form the basis of most of the material comprising the piece. The tonal centers of the different sections reflect a prolongation of one of these basic cells. Therefore, the piece is highly constructivist in its design. The surface, however, is interchangeably tranquil and bouncy, with some small hints of jazz and large doses of hemiola: an aural reflection on the halcyon late nights of Houston (during many of which, fittingly enough, the piece was written).