Planet WEIR JUDITH

Description :

Study score for Weir’s orchestral work commissioned by Britten Pears Arts for the Aldeburgh Festival 2024 where Weir was Composer in Residence. PLANET is a set of three short orchestral pieces inspired by views of our planet, and galaxy, photographed from outer space. These are: (1) “The blue marble”/Apollo 17 (2) “The pale blue dot”/Voyager 1 (3) Cluster NGC 6355 /Hubble Space Telescope Musically, the three movements are primarily studies in texture and harmony. (1) explores a wide, almost- static set of chords (2) a dark, thin atmosphere, briefly illuminated towards the end by shafts of sound (3) a dense collision of instrumental groups, eventually forming a rich harmonic mass .It may seem strange to have explored such a huge, cosmic subject by means of a smallish Mozart-sized orchestra. My inspiration here was a visit to the ingenious Eise Eisinga Planetarium at Franeker in the Netherlands (completed in 1781, and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.) Built in the sitting room ceiling of a modestly sized house, and operated by a clockwork-style mechanism in the loft, it accurately represents the changing positions of the earth, sun, moon and five neighbouring planets, in real time.