Chromosphere
Composed in 2009
For orchestra
Duration: 7:00
Instrumentation: pic,2,2,Eh,2,bcl,2,cbn/4,3,3,1/timp/3pc/hp/pno/str
The chromosphere (“sphere of color”) is the middle layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, between the photosphere (which is the part of the Sun that we usually see) and the outer corona. Even though we think of the Sun as bright yellow, the chromosphere is rosy red, and can usually only be seen during a total eclipse. Solar flares and filaments burst through the chromosphere from the photosphere below, creating a spectacular show of solar phenomena and reminding us of the incredible energy and power of our Sun.
Chromosphere opens with a blast from the four horns, sounding a jagged, syncopated motive that will become the basis of much of the musical material. Soon, however, a more fluid, lyrical idea comes into focus (first heard in the muted trumpets and piano). As the jagged syncopations spin themselves into an energetic counterpoint, the lyrical material is recast as a triumphant chorale in the full brass section. After a series of episodes in which the angular motive saturates the texture further and further, the chorale returns, more restrained this time, as the solo clarinet plays a leaping melody around it. Again the jagged motive froths itself up, this time into an ebullient canon in which three tempi occur at the same time. But something goes wrong—the joyous canon devolves into a frenzied clash of competing rhythms, timbres, and incredibly dissonant sounds. The music has no choice but to cease immediately and fall into . . . silence? Not quite, as the cellos, basses, and xylophone hold a chord over from the edge of disaster. Gradually, the musical ideas seem to take stock of themselves, before building up to a final triumphant return of both the brass chorale and the angular syncopations. Finally, a final sounding of the opening idea in the full orchestra leads to an exuberant ending, with some instruments perhaps more exuberant than others. . . .
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First Performance: New Music for Orchestra, December 11th, 2009
Woolsey Hall, Yale University, New Haven, CT
The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale; Adrian Slywotzky, conductor
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Chromosphere was selected for the 2011 American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings and the 2010 Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Young Composers Forum.
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