Conor Ellis on Cosmic Sounds: 'We’re always keen to use creative experiences to explore scientific concepts'
The young musicians of National Youth Orchestras Of Scotland will help transform various venues into cosmic soundscapes this summer. Evie Glen discovers more about the sound of science
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In 1781, William Herschel discovered Uranus from the back garden of his home in Bath, through a telescope he’d made under the guidance of a local mirror maker. He was 43 and had already lived a first life as an accomplished composer and player of the violin, oboe, organ and harpsichord. By 1769, he had written 24 orchestral symphonies, 14 concertos and countless solo works for more than ten different instruments. His dual accomplishments in music and astronomy confirm the fusion between art and science.
It is an interdisciplinary tradition carried forward in modern works such as Kraftwerk’s Autobahn, which pioneered the musical mimicking of the Doppler effect to capture the changing pitches of cars on the motorway in 1974; Björk’s 2011 techno-science album Biophilia, released with an accompanying app narrated by David Attenborough; and Brian Eno’s Apollo: Atmospheres And Soundtracks, released in 1983 to soundscape a documentary on the moon landings.
This July, the National Youth Orchestras Of Scotland will magnify that covalent bond in a series of pop-up performances under the dome of Edinburgh’s Dynamic Earth as well as through concerts at Perth Concert Hall and in the capital’s Usher Hall. Gustav Holst’s The Planets will be the gravitational centre; written between 1914 and 1917, this orchestral suite is Holst’s only truly renowned work, partly due to his own distaste for celebrity. Not quite a man of Herschel’s polymathic tastes, Holst worked the majority of his life in a relatively humble teaching post at London’s St Paul’s Girls’ School and was more inspired by astrology than astronomy.
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The seven works of Planets are named after every one but Earth, as Holst claimed it had no astrological significance. The opening piece, ‘Mars’, is perhaps the most recognisable for its striking influence on John Williams’ ‘The Imperial March’, composed for the Star Wars films. Both evoke the staccato rhythm of an army moving towards their impending fate, swelling and withering in a vast celestial space. NYOS describe Holst’s suite as ‘a brilliant introduction to classical music and the orchestra’, supporting their vision of Scotland as a place ‘where all communities can access world-class ensemble youth music-making and share in its social, personal and cultural benefits’.
The Planets will be performed alongside two contemporary pieces by Iris ter Schiphorst and Camille Pépin. Schiphorst’s composition is inspired by a 2015 breakthrough when scientists briefly detected the sound of two black holes colliding, one 35 times the mass of the sun, the other slightly smaller. The sound is a kind of chirping, which Schiphorst reimagines in Gravitational Waves, using melodies to ask how the universe sounds.
Pépin’s composition is named after a supercluster of galaxies, home to the Milky Way and around 100,000 others, clustered around a gravitational anomaly known as The Great Attractor. Laniakea is Hawaiian for ‘open skies’ or ‘immense heaven’, capturing, as much as words can, the inconceivable vastness of space. This piece aims to distil that vastness and ground it on Earth, prompting audiences to engage with the imagination required to confront the astronomical.
Hosting a day of performances in an unconventional space like Dynamic Earth helps disrupt a perception of classical music’s exclusivity, inviting those unfamiliar with the genre to experience it beyond the earthlier aura of a grand concert hall. Conor Ellis, director of science and learning engagement at Dynamic Earth, says the centre is thrilled to be working with NYOS. ‘We’re always keen to use creative experiences to explore scientific concepts in an accessible way, which can help people who might not traditionally be interested in science see that it is indeed “for them”.’
NYOS Presents Cosmic Sounds, Perth Concert Hall, Friday 10 July; Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh, Saturday 11 July; Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Sunday 12 July.