I Composed The Planets to be performed during my tenure as Composer in Residence at Chetham’s International Piano Summer School, Manchester, in August 2018. Drawing inspiration from Holst’s Suite of the same name – a work of unstoppable importance – my composition nevertheless contrasts conspicuously, both in its overall scheme (nine movements instead of seven) and orientation (my work takes the Sun as its point of orientation, whereas Holst places the Earth at the centre point and hence leaves it out of the musical scheme). There is, as a consequence, a sense of increasing serenity to my music following the effervescence of Jupiter, though there are reverberations of earlier themes and moods in the concluding movement, Pluto, which nevertheless ends enigmatically as befits its distant, ‘cold’ designation. Pluto was left out of Holst’s work for good reason – it had yet to be discovered – though Colin Matthews redressed the situation admirably in 2000. Whether one chooses to go along with Pluto’s unresolved status, or indeed to promote it to the position of ‘full’ planet (amusingly, Pluto became demoted to dwarf- planet in 1992) is perhaps less important than its potential to evince a musical spirit entirely to itself.
- ISMN: 9790570813209 (M570813209)
