Planetarium Trilogy

Planetarium Trilogy is a musical representation of how we experience Space from a human perspective on a daily basis. We experience the heat and power that the sun brings every day, the chilling light that the moon casts upon us every night, and the majesty and magnificence of our planet during every living moment of our lives.

The Sun features bombastic ensemble tutti passages which sustain a single chord over a period of time. Underneath the harmonically static chords and the overwhelming sound mass, individual instruments highlight different note within the chord, mimicking the dynamic and ever-changing surface of the sun as thermonuclear fusion takes place and delivers life-giving heat and light to the earth.

The Moon opens with the rumbling low brass and woodwinds introducing an enigmatic and tonally ambiguous melody, setting the atmosphere of a dark and dangerously quiet night. The A section juxtaposes the mysterious melody with the anxious and unsettling staccato notes of woodwinds and percussion, and contrasts stillness with movement. The B section was written with a clear visual image behind it: the English Horn solo represents the cold and lonely moon, which is surrounded by passing clouds—heard as the chromatic scales played by woodwinds with airy tone. In the background, harp, celesta, and vibraphone create a watery texture. This improvisatory and liquid-like music is composed with pitches from the A section melody. The music recapitulates as the enigmatic melody expands in terms of contrapuntal complexity and instrumentation until it reaches a climax. After a sonic explosion that recalls the chordal tutti in The Sun, the B section returns, yet this time the English horn is followed by a shadowy saxophone solo. The night is made eerier by the presence of 2 moons. My inspiration for such ending was the final scene from Star Wars Episode 6 where two suns were shown on the planet of Tatooine.

In the opening section of The Earth, an expansive melodic theme is played by the horns, which evokes the feeling and imagery of standing on a tall mountaintop and looking past the endless layers of mountain ranges. The middle section features a melismatic trumpet solo that floats on top of the woodwinds which play the main theme in canon. The endless entrances of the same melody over and over again reinforces the imagery of mountains one after another, seemingly never-ending. When facing such a magnificent view of the earth, I have no choice but to feel humbled, to realize how small we are compared to it, to admire the power that our planet holds.