The following program note for this tuba and piano work was distributed at a concert on 3 February 1985 at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

“ALLEN SAPP:
SIRIUS (STELLA CANIS)
THE COMPANION OF SIRIUS :: THE SERIOUS COMPANION

This work, composed at the request of Paul Conrad, treats rotating celestial bodies, one extremely bright, one extremely dense. These two works revolve around each other as does the Brightest Star and its Companion, the White Dwarf, and may be performed in any order. The allusions to work of Stravinsky are deliberate and part of the Serious tone of Sirius which is marked by a markedly episodic continuity and various realignments of memorable fragments. (A.S.)”