10
Mar 09“Pluto” Still Fighting to Be a Planet
Update April 8th, 2009: Listen to “Pluto” Here »
Last Friday I finished writing my first large work for orchestra, entitled Pluto. Those of you familiar with both the ongoing debate as to Pluto’s planet-hood (fyi, it’s not) and “The Planets”, an orchestral suite by Gustav Holst, may get what this piece’s title is getting at.
Although the truth is I didn’t compose the piece with Holst in mind. In fact, I had a hard time titling this piece because it changes feel so many times. I think the piece is best described as being heavily thematic, following the somewhat-recent trend of Hollywood film music to use a lietmotif, or “recurring theme” which holds the piece together. Overall, the piece has heavy influences of film composers John Williams and John Powell, 20th-century American composers such as Aaron Copland, and touches of Jazz.
The main theme is comprised of the notes C, F, G or scale degrees 1, 4, and 5 (1C 2d 3e 4F 5G) played in ascending order. Originally the theme is presented in a major key. In the middle of the piece, the theme is presented in a minor key. The piece finishes in a major key.
View the piece here: http://issuu.com/adamit/docs/pluto.
Grab the pdf here: http://polymath.mit.edu/portfolio/pdf/Pluto.pdf.
Or view in the embeded player below: (will likely not work in RSS feeds or other syndication services such as Facebook)
