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the light thief (2019)
workshopped by The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra at Centre for Music, Oxford February 22nd 2019 premiere with The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra June 19th 2020 This piece was inspired by a conversation with Professor Haley Gomez of Cardiff University from 2016. During our conversation Professor Gomez explained how dust absorbs star light and blocks out large parts of the night sky. Inspired by this and correspondence with Professor Paul Francis of The Australian National University the light thief uses transcriptions of star dust, supernova explosions and quasar broad line regions to follow a speck of dust as it darts across the orchestra absorbing light as it disappears into the night sky. |
Songs from the Stars: Movement I (2016)
selected as part of BBC National Orchestra of Wales Composition: Wales workshopped and premiered February 25th, April 27th and 28th 2016 This piece was inspired by the Philae spacecraft that formed part of the Rossetta mission in 2014. It is based upon transcriptions of the sun, solar flares, a radio storm between Jupiter and Io and stardust and is inspired by spectralist techniques. The first of four movements, the piece follows a satellite lost in space, similar to when Philae was thought to be out of operation. Exploring the loneliness of space the first movement takes a panoramic view of space, slowly introducing each transcription throughout the orchestra, culminating into a cacophony of sound before slowly dying away. |
