I particularly remember an entire night outdoors, on the Ohio farm where I grew up, when I was completely occupied observing the constellations Scorpio and Sagittarius as they ascended in the southeast, slowly and serenely processed along their celestial arcs to cross the meridian, and then disappeared in the mists of the southwest horizon. It was a particularly clear night and the Milky Way, with its thousands of distant and nearby stars, provided an especially rich background for the constellation Sagittarius. Years later I composed a string quartet movement, “Sagittarius in Transit,” inspired by this recollection.