Sunset

Listen

Listen to the piece now: click here for MP3 audio. This performance was realized inside the composer's computer.

Duration

13:55

Program Note

"This is the first movement of a new multi-movement work in which Hubble Space Telescope Views will be the finale.

"The changing colors of a sunset begin with the familiar blue sky of scattered, diffused sunlight from which most of the red light has been removed, skewed to the sides. The wind shifts and all manner of creatures take note as we tilt off to the side and red light makes its dramatic appearance. The impending darkness is accented by the rising of a full moon, eclipsed--and yet lit by red light that Earth's atmosphere has refracted around to it. In the west, following the setting sun, Mercury and Venus break the darkness, drawing our eyes once more upwards, preparing us for the stars which will soon be emerging."

--Matthew H. Fields

Instrumentation

The players are the same as in Hubble Space Telescope Views, and the percussion is a subset of those used in that piece.

• piccolo
• 2 flutes
• 2 oboes
• English horn
• 2 clarinets
• bass clarinet
• 2 bassoons
• contrabassoon
• 4 horns
• 3 trumpets
• 2 trombones
• bass trombone
• tuba
• timpani
• 3 percussionists
• Player 1
• tamtam
• Player 2
• vibraphone
• xylophone
• tubular bells
• Player 3
• crash cymbals
• suspended cymbal
• harp
• large string ensemble (e.g. 15/14/12/10/6)

Year of Composition

2007.

Score

Scores open in separate windows.

Click this paragraph to view or download the score in Adobe Acrobat format.

If you have or are willing to install the SCORCH plug-in, you can click this paragraph to view the score in SCORCH format.