Blue Sky is a work for the five percussionists known as Nexus. In consultation with Bob Becker I discovered the songbells, a distinctive and beautiful cousin of the glockenspiel – similar to it, but lower in pitch. I decided to surround the songbells with a choir of variegated pitched metals. I am fascinated by the complexities and subtleties in cymbals, in pitched metals, in gongs. I decided to work within a restricted palette of these instruments, to work with gradations of pitch and colour, to get lost in a cloud of cymbals and a thicket of triangles. I want to thank the musicians of Nexus for their input and expertise, and I dedicate this work to them. Blue Sky was commissioned by Nexus through the generosity of the Ontario Arts Council.