Plutonic (2003) 15’
3333 4331 3perc timp hrp strgs: 14 12 10 8 6
written for: Nederlands Studentenorkest
first performance: feb. 2004, Zomeren (NL)
performed since: feb. 2004 throughout Holland and in Budapest, Hungary
"The big surprise of the evening was the piece in which Florian Maier translated the planet Pluto into sound [...] feverish...chilly and rustling sharply... the music reached its luscious climax when the violinists took water-filled wine glasses and evoked, stroking the rims with their fingers, supernaturally ethereal tones which eventually evaporated into silence like mist in the morning sun."
-Eindhovens Dagblad (NL), 20.01.2004
Commisioned by the Fonds Scheppende Toonkunst.
With an orbit that takes more than 200 years, Pluto is the most desolate and remote planet in our solar system. It used to be a moon of Uranus, until gravity pulled it away. The piece starts with an illustration of this gravitational pull, then illustrates the continuing journey of this small rock towards the outer limits of our system. Pluto was also the ruler of the underworld in Greek mythology, and his shadow is cast into the music as well. Furthermore, I was inspired by the astrological connotation of Pluto, which is mass dynamics, something natural for a composition for a 106-people orchestra. At the end of the piece, I wanted to hint at the outlook Pluto must have to what's beyond our sun and its satellites - a cold and intangible, yet beautiful and transfigured, mystical vision of deep space.
listen: Plutonic Clip!
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