Midnight by Joseph Di Ponio is a lyrical, and atmospheric work for violin and piano which, in a departure from his normal style of writing, was written largely by improvising at the piano. The piece is in a through-composed, asymmetric arch form: ABCD with the climax in the C section, where the A and D sections are related through the eighth-eighth-quarter note ostinato and the use of pedal tones. The B section introduces a flowing eighth-note ostinato and flows into the climactic C section which also develops material from both the A and B sections. Di Ponio describes the piece as "in transit" and I agree. Midnight feels as if it has begun before the sound emerges because of the languorous tempo, the indeterminate harmony and the vague melody. The opening ostinato and much of the harmonic landscape is reminiscent of Messiaen's eighth and final movement from the Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps. Minor 9ths and 2nds as dissonance are prevalent early in the work, but give way to exotic tonal chromaticism by measure 40 where d-flats and later f-sharps act as chromatic non-chord tones. Further, at the climax in measure 53, the g minor arpeggio is made even more exotic through its emphasis on the leading tone, the harmonic minor sixth and seventh and the flatted fifth. Throughout the piece, the ostinati provide firm tonal grounding and the pitch-center rises from F# at the beginning to G and finally to A-flat.