Cosmic Suite
Cosmic Suite evolved from of a single-movement piece (Vistas of Mercury) that I composed for the occasion of renowned cellist Ronald Feldman’s artist residency at the University of Oregon in Spring 2010. Mr. Feldman provided invaluable coaching and encouragement that ultimately led me to expand the piece into a full suite. I have always been deeply stirred by the celestial world expanding infinitely outward, awe-inspiring yet comprehended so feebly from our little niche in the universe. More locally, our own solar system provides a small-scale taste of creation’s broad pallet of fascinating worlds. In Cosmic Suite, I offer a musical journey through some of these astral environments, evoking imagery inspired by the striking beauty of these otherworldly realms.
I. Vistas of Mercury. Descending onto a landscape of burning red and broken terrain…jagged cliffs, whose fissured edges fall away into smoking abyss…gaseous clouds send a miasmic bog across the waste…
II. Through the Asteroid Belt. Like gargantuan boulders hurled through space by cosmic titans, the asteroids collide and shatter in frenzied storms of splintered rock…
III. Drifting in Astral Space. Weightless, floating through a vast sea of black emptiness…faint shimmers of distant stardust and muted celestial brilliance…frozen in the infinite stillness…
IV. The Fires of Venus. Violent flames engulf the scene…oceans of viscous lava heave in great swells…mountains of fire burst forth spontaneously from massive clouds of scorching gases…
