There Will Be Stars (for Pauline Oliveros) (2016)
for large-spatialized improvising Deep Listening ensemble
Commission/Premiere Info: Originally commissioned in honor of composer Pauline Oliveros, as a surprise gift to her for her 85th birthday on May 30th, 2017, by McGill University.
Program Notes
There will be stars (for Pauline Oliveros) was originally commissioned in honor of composer Pauline Oliveros, as a surprise gift to her for her 85th birthday on May 30th, 2017, by McGill University. Perhaps sadly synchronistic, I completed this whole work on Thanksgiving day, November 24th, 2016 the day Pauline passed away, not knowing she had passed--so had to alter the "star map" dates, that create the pitches that correspond to her date of birth/death, and connect with the dates that correspond to my birth date and other significant pitch/date mappings.
This work is inspired by Pauline’s Sonic Mandala Compositional work, similar to her work Rose Moon, and was also composed during my work with Pauline this past year in Deep Listening. The work is for multiple performers, percussionists, instrumentalists, and wandering spoken voice(s)- for as many other players that would like to be “stars”, independent satellites, to perform the layers of the work. The work can also be spatialized even further as a 'star map' of a sonic mandala over the entire space of the concert hall, or performance space. A layered version of this work that incorporates a choir of voices overlaying another poem by Sara Teasdale "There will be rest":
There Will Be Stars
There will be stars over the place forever;
Though the house we loved and the street we loved are lost, Every time the earth circles her orbit
On the night the autumn equinox is crossed,
Two stars we knew, poised on the peak of midnight
Will reach their zenith; stillness will be deep;
There will be stars over the place forever,
There will be stars forever, while we sleep.”
- Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)
Perusal Score