About The Planets Online
The Concert
'The Planets Op. 32' by Gustav Holst
Performed by the Auburn Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Anthony Spain
Featuring the Seattle Pacific University Women's Chorus
Choreographed visuals and lighting: 'The Planets Live' by Adrian Wyard
Sound by Bill Levey
Commentators
Music Composition: Bath Philharmonia Music Director, Jason Thornton
All others: Adrian Wyard
New commentaries will be added over time. To see what we're working on follow this link
Web Site
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Mercury is marked Vivace (very lively) in the compound time signature of 6/8 in Bflat major
Mercury the Winged Messenger
Note the strings are muted
This movement was inspired by Mercury the Roman god of communication and prosperity. Mercury is also associated with Gemini & Virgo
The pulse is staying the same but rhythmic ambiguity is beginning to be established
The visuals here needed energy and movement to match the music, so Mercury is shown zooming around, presumably delivering messages
About the Planet Mercury (Wikipedia)
Piccolo in 6/8 whilst oboes, celeste, harp 1 and 1st violin in 3/4
Missions to Mercury
Mercury’s direction matches the music: if the pitch ascends, so does Mercury
Section concludes with 1st violins on a high harmonic
We used to think that Mercury did not spin and always faced the Sun, but that’s not true.
1st violins using natural harmonic E play a rhythmic motif
Can you hear Morse code? Maybe Mercury is trasnmitting messages to alien worlds?
Rhythmic motif transferred to Glockenspiel
Rhythmic accompaniment presented solidly in 2/4 with melody on solo violin in 6/8
The motion through a star field is used here because it suggests a journey, and the motion gives the image sufficient energy to match the music
Places on Mercury have the greatest temperature range in the Solar System: -280 to 800F
2nd violins begin the building of the orchestral texture
As the energy level in the music builds so does the drama and speed shown on screen
Here comes the crescendo - wait for it
And as we pass through the apex everything slows down. Notice the lighting emphasizes the downbeat
A fermata (pause) on a low Bflat and F...
Mercury in 'False Color' (NASA/JHU-APL/Carnegie Inst.)
This is a 'stretched RGB' false color image from the Messenger spacecraft
The next section is full of rhythmic ambiguity
Strings in rhythmic unison
Slower, heavier music is depicted by a slow moving, massive Jupiter
Woodwinds join, dropping the tonality by half a step
Rachmaninoff Basin (NASA/APL/Carnegie Inst.)
A descending phrase in flutes and clarinets
Mercury's North Pole (NASA/GSFC/MIT/APL/Carnegie Inst.)
Despite being close to the Sun, water ice has been detected in shadowed craters
For the closing section new imagery is shown at a fast pace to match the energy in the music
Strings in rhythmic unison make a hushed return
A tour over Mercury's surface (NASA/APL)
The ambiguous rhythmic motif returns on timpani
In 2021 the BepiColombo mission will arrive at Mercury
When the music calms it’s important that the imagery becomes calm and/or smaller, so a zoom out fits well
A melody that descends in pitch goes well with a zoom-out too
A chromatic ascent through the range of the woodwind family
The penultimate bar is a held close harmony Emajor Chord
arked Vivace (very lively) in the compound time signature of 6/8 in Bflat major
The strings are muted and Holst creates a very delicate texture of perpetually mobile eighth notes, passing the motion from one string family and woodwind family member to another, underpinned by short chords in harps
Two bars of 2/4 using sixteenth notes in strings and woodwind, followed by a return to 6/8 followed by 2/4 again. The pulse staying the same but rhythmic ambiguity beginning to be established
Piccolo in 6/8 whilst oboes, celeste, harp 1 and 1st violin in 3/4
Section concludes with 1st violins on a high harmonic (violins simply rest their finger on the string rather than pressing it down, producing a very airy light sound)
1st violins using natural harmonic E play a rhythmic motif, which is completely rhythmically ambiguous between 3/4 and 6/8. This acts as an upper pedal (same as a low pedal - sustaining harmonic direction)
Rhythmic motif transferred to Glockenspiel
Rhythmic accompaniment presented solidly in 2/4 with melody on solo violin in 6/8, proceeded by solo oboe, flute and celeste. The celeste is accompanied by just one desk (two players) per 1st Violins 2nd violins and violas
2nd violins begin the building of the orchestral texture followed by 1st violins, clarinets, flutes and trumpets all accompanied with chords in brass and arpeggiation in harps in Cmajor
A fermata (pause) on a low Bflat and F followed by one bar return to the opening rhythmic idea and another fermata bar, followed by a complete return to the opening material - a recapitulation
The next section is full of rhythmic ambiguity in which the original idea is tossed around the orchestra in combinations of 6/8, 3/4 and 2/4. Particularly listen out for the celeste and piccolo duet in 6/8 accompanied by strings, harp and woodwind in 3/4
Strings in rhythmic unison played pianissimo in Dmajor with a weirdly meandering melodic profile where the material goes one way then the next
Woodwinds join, dropping the tonality by half a step to Dflat major
A descending phrase in flutes and clarinets phrased in 4 notes rather than the previous 3 creating yet more rhythmic ambiguity
Strings in rhythmic unison make a hushed return but in a more harmonically ambiguous way, using a variety of chromatic notes. With the joining of the woodwind this leads to a very brief orchestral climax on a single eighth note of Emajor
The ambiguous rhythmic motif returns on timpani on the apparent dominant (B), with interjections by celeste and woodwind and the original melody played by piccolo and solo violin
A chromatic ascent through the range of the woodwind family in 2/4 concluding on a very high E harmonic (4 octaves above middle 'c') played by 1st violins with further interjections from celeste, strings, harp contra bassoon and double bass
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