{"id":9696,"date":"2015-01-20T18:45:27","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T23:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9696"},"modified":"2015-01-20T18:45:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-20T23:45:27","slug":"space-music-an-ensemble-with-pulsars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9696","title":{"rendered":"Space music: An ensemble with pulsars"},"content":{"rendered":"

The late composer\u00a0G\u00e9rard Grisey<\/a>\u00a0created the work\u00a0Le Noir de l’\u00e9toile<\/a><\/em> based around pulsars :\u00a0Sounds of the cosmos, as muse and metronome – The Boston Globe<\/a>\u00a0–<\/p>\n

But for all of our skyward magniloquence over the years, the universe has rarely answered back. One notable exception however came in 1985, when the French spectralist composer G\u00e9rard Grisey first heard the sounds of the Vela pulsar as captured by radio telescopes. He was transfixed. In their charismatic rhythmic beating Grisey found a kind of primordial music, a celestial metronome, and a link to an event dating to the most distant reaches of human history. The Vela was created by a supernova that exploded some 12,000 years ago \u2014 a sight, we are told, that may have been visible to primitive man in broad daylight.<\/em><\/p>\n

Grisey knew at once that these sounds must find a place in his own music. He ultimately took the sampled beating of two pulsars \u2014 the Vela, and a second pulsar referred to only by its coordinates, 0359-54 \u2014 and placed them at the center of a large-scale work for six percussionists and electronics titled \u201cLe Noir de l\u2019\u00c9toile.\u201d Completed in 1990, \u201cLe Noir\u201d is still rarely tackled given its fierce technical demands, but each time constitutes a genuine event. For its performance on Friday night, the ambitious ensemble Sound Icon took over Somerville\u2019s Center for the Arts at the Armory.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s a different performance of the work given on Nov. 19, 2011<\/p>\n

at Rowan University by Dean Witten with an Alumni All-Star Ensemble. The musicians were Matthew Witten, percussion 2; Anthony DiBartolo, percussion 3; Brittany Hoffman, percussion 4; AJ Lustig, percussion 5 and Mika Godbole, percussion 6.<\/em><\/p>\n