Celestial Harmonics

For Orchestra

Written: Upcoming
Duration: ca. 15'
for orchestra (exact instrumentation TBD) (2 percussionists, timpani (4), 2 harps, keyboard, strings)
Commission-In-Progress
Upcoming World Premiere: TBD
Publisher: Bill Holab Music

PROGRAM NOTE (In-Progress)

If the stars and planets could make sounds, what would they sound like? This question is what inspired the creation of Celestial Harmonics. The word 'celestial' can be used in an astronomical or religious sense, referring to a planet in outer space as observed in astronomy or belonging to or relating to heaven. Both definitions were important to me in creating this piece.

One of my primary goals in creating this piece was to create a musical soundscape that uses copious harmonics, primarily played by stringed instruments. In music, harmonics are notes that sound higher and are often more delicate-sounding than the fundamental frequency or "regular" notes. One could even say harmonics sound "heavenly" if we were to define the concept of heaven as something pure and beautiful. I also use the harmonic or overtone series in this piece, the sequence of harmonics, musical tones, or pure tones whose frequency is an integer multiple of these fundamental notes.

I also wanted to incorporate sounds from space. Although we can never actually hear sound in space since space is almost an absolute vacuum, scientists have created sounds from non-audio data captured from space and manipulated this data so we can hear it represented by sounds. These sounds are often so high or low that they are out of range of human hearing, so they may be transposed up or down by many octaves to make them audible to the human ear. (As an aside, I am in good company: the French composer Olivier Messiaen transposed and slowed down numerous birdsongs so they could be heard clearly and played on musical instruments, so the concept of transposition to facilitate aural recognition isn't entirely new.) Often, these sounds are heavenly-sounding and sometimes, as you would expect, otherworldly. When they are extremely low, they can also be terrifying. Most of this piece focuses on more heavenly-type sounds.

Celestial Harmonics is in five connected movements, each ca. three minutes. It is constructed as a sort of dramatic narrative, moving between fast and slow sections and high and low material to create a sense of tension and release throughout the entire work.