Music of the Cosmos

PROGRAM

Looking Up

         Asteroids                                                                       Gary White (b. 1937)

         Cloudless Sky                                                               Naoko Tsujita (b. 1985)

Constellations                                                                    Geert D’hollander (b. 1965)

         iv. Halos

         ii. Leo et Scorpius

Stellar Jazz Standards

         Stardust                                                                     Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981) arr. S. Warner

         Fly Me to the Moon                                                   Bart Howard (1915-2004) arr. P. Bray

A Cinematic Atmosphere

         Theme from Interstellar                                          Hans Zimmer (b. 1957) arr. I. Wong

         Princess Leia Theme from Star Wars                     John Williams (b. 1932) arr. J. Lehrer

Sun Seekers

         Here Comes the Sun                                              George Harrison (1943-2001) arr. C. Landry

         To The Sun, for carillon + cellphones                     Chris Chafe (b. 1952) et al

         (MI Premiere)

Pop Stars

         A Sky Full of Stars                                                      Coldplay arr. J. Brink

         The Moon Represents my Heart                                 Weng Ching-hsi (1936-2012)

It’s been a great period for astronomy firsts. Last year, The Parker Solar Probe (named after MSU alumnus Eugene Parker) flew deeper into the sun’s atmosphere (and faster) than any human craft has ever gone. A team from the UK discovered the first planet orbiting binary stars on a perpendicular axis. And just this month, data from the James Webb Telescope has suggested the presence of a potential bio-signature on the distant planet K12-18b.

Headlines aside, the cosmos have been a source of fascination since long before modern astronomy. Generations of our ancestors lay under the night sky, transfixed by its beauty, tranquility, and vastness. Many among us still find comfort in the cosmic perspective it offers on our fleeting human lives. Today we’ll sample just a few of the countless works of art that have been inspired by the sun, moon, stars, planets, constellations and space itself.

Looking Up:

Gary White’s Asteroids is the iconic space-themed composition for carillon, captivating carillon audiences with its booming echoes and spacious singing lines. In music, melodies from an iconic work can become part of the larger musical lexicon, quoted and referenced in works by the generations of composers that follow. Remember these first few chords of Asteroids; they will return several times during this concert.

White ends his piece with a sprinkling of stardust, quite literally; the final trailing refrain of the piece is a direct quotation from Hoagy Carmichael’s classic jazz song “Stardust”. Later in the program we’ll hear Sally Slade Warner’s arrangement of Stardust, trailing off, of course, with a quotation of Asteroids.

Regardless of what today’s weather brings, hopefully the image of a clear blue sky above us is conveyed in Cloudless Sky, a recent work for carillon written originally in memory of the victims of the Amagasaki train derailment by rising star composer Naoko Tsujita.

Constellations:

In astronomy, Halos can refer to spherical population of field stars and clusters, or to a ring of white or colored light around a celestial body refracting through atmospheric ice crystals.  The piece pulls elements from both: clusters, colorful and rich smooth-changing harmonies, rhythmical patterns, rotating sequences, and transparent, almost sparkling ornamentations. The final coda of the piece contains a quote of to the Asteroids theme, and the 2-note rising motif throughout the piece is also a subtle gesture towards the 2-note descending them of Asteroids. D’hollander leans even further into to the Asteroids reference in Leo et Scorpio, Playing Gary White’s iconic thunderclap upside down throughout the piece, with an effect that is no less majestic than the original.

Stellar Jazz Standards:

Space has inspired many songwriters and jazz composers are no exception. Enjoy a memory of love's refrain and see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars with the two standards Stardust (with an Asteroids-inspired coda) and Fly Me to the Moon.

A Cinematic Atmosphere:

How to pick just two pieces from all of space cinema? At the very top of IMDB’s list of the greatest film composers of the 21st century are John Williams and Hans Zimmer. Zimmer cited the Interstellar soundtrack as the best work of his career, and John Williams doesn’t get more iconic than Star Wars. While the Star Wars Main Title Theme and Imperial March get a lot of airtime, for sheer beauty it’s hard to beat the Princess Leia Theme first heard in Star Wars IV: A New Hope.

Sun Seekers:

The Parker Solar Probe was the first NASA craft to be named after a still living scientist, our own MSU alum Eugene Parker, creator of the theory of solar winds. Over the past 6 years, the probe has passed through the sun's atmosphere 22 times, flying faster than any human-made craft and shedding new light on the inner dynamics of our sun. To The Sun is an interactive soundscape for carillon and cellphones created by a team at UC Berkeley to celebrate the successful mission.

Gather at the plaza in front of Beaumont and be part of this MI premiere, where a 500-year-old musical instrument merges with videogaming and our powerful pocket computers and entertainment systems to bring real cosmological data to life. Turn up your volume, follow the Probe's journey on your phone, contribute to the soundscape by catching as many magnetic / plasma waves as you can, and help MSU set an unbeatable high score in honor of Dr. Parker. Scan the QR code in the color program insert and hit “Start” to play.

But how will you know when it’s time to play? Listen for the familiar refrains of the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun and then get ready! More information about the Parker Probe’s journey can be found in the insert or at suncarillon.org.

Pop Stars:

It’s no secret that some space songs (including the jazz standards we heard earlier) are mostly about very terrestrial concerns, like romance and loss. Coldplay’s Sky Full of Stars is such a song, all about a beautiful romantic love.

The Taiwanese love ballad The Moon Represents My Heart is often cited as the most famous and beloved Chinese songs of all time. It was one of the first foreign songs to achieve widespread popularity in mainland China following the Cultural Revolution and the initiation of the Open Door Policy in 1978. It is decidedly bittersweet, lamenting but also honoring a love that cannot be; and perhaps in that sense it captures a bit of both the majesty and vast separation, perhaps even longing, we may feel when gazing upwards.

Thanks for joining us today! If you enjoyed today’s music, there is more to come:

·      A commencement carillon recital on Friday May 2nd at 2pm.

·      A reprise of music from today’s performance on Sunday, May 4th at 1:45pm, to be followed by a ticketed space themed Piano Monster concert (4 grand pianos and many grand pianists on a single stage) in Cook Recital Hall at 3pm. music.msu.edu/events for more details and tickets.

·      Six summer Wednesday evenings at 6pm. July 2nd – August 6th, featuring guest carillonists from around the world including the top four competitors of last year’s Queen Fabiola International Carillon Performance Competition.

·      A return of last year’s Halloween concert and light show.