The Spheres

The gravitational force around which the entire solar system revolves, the glowing sphere in the core of the system that pushes and pulls all the others in an endless rhythm. So too did the music of our Sun have to. It had to be an eternally shimmering presence that could be the bedrock upon which we built the Harmony of the Spheres. 

Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system so we took advantage of the general human connotation between size and pitch. This would be our highest voice in the piece.

A day on Venus, a full rotation of the planet, is longer than a full revolution of it around the Sun and I wanted the music to reflect this. Much like Mercury it would still be high pitched because of its (relative) small size, but it would also have a simplicity and lethargicness to it.

Although none of the planets have ever been stepped on by humans before I always see Mars as a lonelier place than the others. I wanted to reflect this in the music with a very somber oscillation between notes, faster than Venus, but emptier.

In a piece that is already dense with harmony and voices acting on separate melodies and times, composing music for Jupiter that would not only set it apart, but set it as the largest planet in the choir was a challenge. We wanted it to be regal, opulent, and grand to reflect that.

Like many of the ideas in this piece the final version of Saturn was something that we arrived at by accident. We did know however, that the rings should be present in the musical material, because the rings are such an integral part of the image of the planet, music without it would feel incomplete. 

Uranus was the last planet that we decided on an instrument for. The piece and harmony of it was so dense with the 8 voices already and we needed something that could sound like a part of everything but also have a unique identity so as to be able to hear it in the mix. We decided to record some percussive sounds to utilize some reverse effects with vibraphones and marimbas.

From my earliest ideas about the piece Neptune acted as the foundation in the sound. While not being as large as Jupiter I felt that it should be lowest due to it being the farthest out from earth - again because of the Doppler Effect. If these planets were voices in a choir this would be the Bass and must build upon and be part of the foundation that everything else resides upon.