Masquerade was commissioned by the Hannaford Street Silver Band. This is a brass band whose personnel is composed top freelance musicians in Toronto, Canada. Mr. Coakley wanted to personalize the piece so he created tone rows from the letter notes drawn from the names of the members of each section of the band. These individual rows were Â"boiledÂ" down to one row, and its derivatives. These four motives served as the thematic, and harmonic material for the composition.