The Planets
From 1914 to 1916, English composer Gustav Holst wrote his seven-movement orchestral suite
The Planets. With a playtime of around 50 minutes, it comprises movements about Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. An eighth movement for Pluto has later been written by Colin Matthews after its discovery in 1930. The pieces try to give each planet a musical description -- more in an astrological or mythological than in an astronomic sense. The musical themes of this late romantic suite have soon been popular and have been described as a treasure trove for modern film composers: Star Wars, The Black Hole, Apollo 13 -- you won't need to listen very carefully to Holst's suite to spot resemblances.
You can hear all of the movements here:
Mars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmk5frp6-3Q
Venus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE6_PacCnRw
Mercury: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkiiAloL6aE
Jupiter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu77Vtja30c
Saturn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO5sB56rfzA
Uranus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDFGmiXnLjU
Neptune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4wuV14QlNM
Since 1916, many more celestial bodies have been discovered. So,
write a piece about a planet, a star or a natural satellite of your choice. You can choose
your own instrumentation, length and style. Also, you can decide whether you want to base your tune on astrological, mythological or astronomic connotations. If your selected subject is widely unknown to the public, please give a short description or explanation to accompany your piece.
And, first of all: Have fun!
I suppose Tralfamadore is off limits. :confused:
I guess there's nothing to be said against fictitious planets, so go for it! :D
I'll probably end up doing something else actually. Just thought I'd ask. :smiley:
Beautiful theme!
Hello!
It has been far too long since I entered one of these contests.
Here is my entry for the contest:
Cruithne (https://soundcloud.com/diane-webster/cruithne)
As a celestial body, the asteroid Cruithne is sort of small and indistinct until you consider that it is locked in a 1:1 orbit with the Earth. The asteroid is sometimes referred to as the Earth's second moon. It is not a true moon because the Earth's gravity does not effect it nor does its effect the Earth. The asteroid sort of runs like a corkscrew around the Earth while both are revolving around the Sun. The asteroid Cruithne is in a normal elliptic orbit around the Sun. Its revolution around the Sun, approximately 364 days at present, is almost equal to that of the Earth. Because of this, Cruithne and Earth appear to follow each other in their paths around the Sun.
Nice. Keep them coming! :D
A Portrait of Proxima Centauri (https://soundcloud.com/erenan/a-portrait-of-proxima-centauri)
Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star and the nearest star to Earth aside from the Sun.
I was planning to do a long thing about the usual myth of Proxima Centauri meeting a couple of superheroes and learning to fly around and fight evil and stuff, but I didn't quite have enough free time during the past weeks, so what you've got here is what I'd written for the intro. :smiley:
If nihilyst doesn't appear soon to declare a winner, I'm going to say I prefer Diamond's tune over mine. I liked hers a lot more.
Sorry that I didn't show up, but I moved and hadn't had any internet the last three weeks. I will listen to your entries and declare the winner soon :)
Aaaaaah, hard to decide. Both are evocative, both fit, both are well made.
I listenened to them many times, closed my eyes and tried to feel which piece gets nearer to embody the celestial body of your choice. And even then it's a tough one.
Diamond16, I can really see Cruithne floating in space. I like the mysterious background pizzicatos and the hard-to-grasp melody. The almost loopable structure emulates the orbit nicely.
Erenan, your piece with it's pulsating bass (that seems to come right out of a sci-fi flick) and the powerful eruption in the middle gives the right impression of a red dwarf like Proxima Centauri.
In conclusion, I find myself playing Erenan's piece more often. Therefore, I declare him the winner.
But rest assured that this choice has been the hardest one in a tune contest for me. Congratulations, Erenan! :)
Wow, I won! Okay! :smiley:
I want to reiterate that I thought Diamond's piece was truly great work!
Congratulations!