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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Saturn is marked Adagio (Very Slow) with 4 beats per measure with no expression markings
Saturn the Bringer of Old Age
The opening begins on the second quarter with a unique combination of instruments
Saturn is the Roman god of renewal and time. Saturn is also associated with Capricorn
Missions to Saturn
With Saturn unique harmonies and competing rhythmic elements combined with bells, mark the marching on of life and time
Opening melody played by the double bass section
This whole introduction is understated with smaller images of Saturn - to match the quiet music
Saturn - the ringed planet (Wikipedia)
Saturday is named for the planet Saturn
This opening melody is now played by the bass oboe
The beginning of the trombone close harmony
Old age will slow you down - that’s shown on-screen
Saturn from 2004 (NASA/JPL/SSI)
Image by the Cassini spacecraft
All the outer gas giants have ring systems, but none are as impressive as Saturn's
Cortege continues with accompaniment
This is Saturn's moon, Titan (Wikipedia)
Saturn's night side (NASA/JPL/SSI)
Saturn's moons Titan and Rhea (NASA/JPL/SSI)
The orchestral textures thicken
Descent to the surface of Titan (ESA/NASA/JPL/UA)
Animation built with images from the Huygens lander
Clouds have been added to spice up the video
We are blinded as we disappear into thick clouds - matching the intensity in the music
And hit the surface with a bump
A Methane Lake: Ontario Lacus (NASA/JPL/USGS)
Saturn’s moon Titan is the only place apart from Earth that has liquid oceans - but they're not water
Chaos and trepidation
Titan's night side (NASA/JPL/SSI)
The music returns to being ambiguous
Saturn's backlit rings (NASA/JPL/SSI)
A calm scene for calm music
The main theme is played by a solo double bass
A change of pace, and a new scene
Saturn from above (NASA/JPL/SSI/Ugarkovic)
The main theme is played by bass clarinet and bassoons
Saturns Rings - and also a tiny Earth (NASA/JPL/SSI)
The main theme is played pp (pianissimo)
Saturns Rings (NASA/JPL/SSI)
Main theme transferred to trombones
Main theme given back to unison strings
Zoom out to a final view (NASA/JPL/SSI)
Saturn in Silhouette (NASA/JPL/SSI)
This silhouette makes Saturns rings look almost like a halo - the final conclusion to old age
The music becomes more static and the harmonic rhythm slows even further
Marked Adagio (Very Slow) with 4 beats per measure with no expression markings
The opening begins on the second quarter with a unique combination of 2 flutes, bass flute and low harp harmonics giving a very pale color to the sound. The rhythmic pattern in syncopated with chords sounding on the second and fourth beats of every measure. The tonality is ambiguous with no really defined key centre
Opening melody played by the double bass section three octaves lower than the accompaniment
This opening melody is now played by the bass oboe. This is a very rare and novel inclusion within the orchestra. In Germanic music it is known as a Heckelphone, an instrument loved by Richard Strauss
The beginning of the trombone close harmony choral as a type of cortege accompanied by pizzicato lower strings in Emajor
Cortege continues with accompaniment on beats 2 and 4 with timpani, harps and lower strings pizzicato. A chorus of flutes and bass flute on the beat plays the main theme
The orchestral textures thicken until the pulse doubles (animato) and the motion of the music is syncopated across the quarter and eighth notes. This is the first time that tubular bells are used in the piece as an offbeat peel. The tempo oscillates between this new tempo and the original tempo with terrifying effect
The music returns to being ambiguous and the positioning of the pulses becomes vague resulting in the inaudibility of the bar lines and sense of floating
The main theme is played by a solo double bass and appears to float as the bar lines have in-effect vanished due to the syncopated accompaniment in harp harmonics
The main theme is played by bass clarinet and bassoons accompanied by a choir of syncopated flutes and harp
The main theme is played pp (pianissimo) by unison strings accompanied by an overlaying of textures including 16th notes by harps a lattice work of french horn entries, arrpegiated flutes and tubular bells
Main theme transferred to trombones
Main theme given back to unison strings (bar double basses) raised one octave
The music becomes more static and the harmonic rhythm slows even further. Holst includes very low pedals from the very limits of the range of the organ. Movement ends with an endless sustained Cmajor chord in upper strings
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