The Music
Gliese 581c, Emily Doolittle
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In the Spring of 2007, when I was initially approaching composers for this project, the news was reporting a that a potential new home for humanity had been found, in the third planet circling a star in the constellation Libra known as Gliese 581 (pronounced Glee-zuh, after the German astronomer who catalogued it). Hopes ran high enough that a radio signal entitled A Message from Earth was sent through Ukraine’s National Space Agency. Gliese 581c was included in Cosmophony to symbolize both our hopes for interstellar travel, but also our fears of environmental collapse on Earth. Perhaps fittingly, Gliese 581c has since been shown to suffer from runaway greenhouse effect, and its neighbour Gliese 581d is now thought to harbour better conditions for terrestrial-like life. Emily Doolittle’s piece pairs passages sparkling with tremulous hope, surrounding a section of darkly ominous chords ascending inexorably from the nether depths of the piano. |
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Canadian-American composer Emily Doolittle is Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. She was born in Nova Scotia in 1972 and educated at Dalhousie University (BMus 1995), the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague (Eerste Fase, 1998), Indiana University (MMus, 1999) and Princeton (PhD, 2007). She has written for such ensembles as Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, the Motion Ensemble and Meduse, and such soloists as sopranos Janice Jackson, Patricia Green and Helen Pridmore, pianists Rachel Iwaasa and Ruth Rose, viola d'amorist Thomas Georgi and viola da gambist Karin Preslmayr. Her doctoral research was on the relationship between bird and other animal songs and human music, a field in which she continues to be active. Other interests include the traditional music of various cultures, community music-making, and music as a vehicle for social change. |
