Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) was an important Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist.  Among his many accomplishments, he discovered Saturn’s moon Titan and gave the first accurate description of the rings of Saturn.  To improve astronomical observations, he also developed the first accurate pendulum clock (achieving accuracy to one minute per day) and later constructed the first accurate spring-regulated clock.  He is also credited with one of the earliest theses discussing extraterrestrial life and with a treatise describing 31-tone equal temperament. I tried to touch on each of these aspects of his career in the two movements of this work.  The title Saturn’s Child refers both to its moon and to the fictive possibility of alien life on Saturn, while the microtonal gestures employ 31-tone equal temperament in a rather cursory nod to his treatise.  The music depicts a space explorer orbiting around Saturn, passing through one of its rings (the “stardust” material), coming near collision with Titan, and finally engaging in an austere, transcendent meeting with life from space. The second movement depicts a clock shop – perhaps an old Renaissance cottage shop in which all the clocks are initially set for the same time, gradually going out of sync, creating pandemonium, and leading to the explosion and demolition of the old cottage – the sole survivor being a trusty grandfather clock, faithfully beating away its inaccurate version of time.  The toy piano seemed a perfect instrument for this role: the tinkling sound is reminiscent of dusty, cheap clock bars, and the inaccurate playing mechanism parallels the (by today's standards) inaccurate timekeeping of days gone by.