Creation

05/16/2019 - Echirolles, La Rampe - Orchester National de Lyon, Leonard Slatkin (conductor)

Sponsor

Lyon National Orchestra

When I was asked to write an overture for the series "Rolling Timpani", I immediately had in mind something vast and powerful. I then thought of the recent discovery of Laniakea, this supercluster of galaxies which is one of the largest structures in the Universe. Discovered in 2014 by Hélène Courtois (1), Laniakea means "immeasurable heavenly paradise" in Hawaiian. Inside this supercluster, the galaxies are in motion and converge towards the same point called the Great Attractor. You have to imagine galaxy currents in which all the matter flows in the same place - as in the heart of a valley - at a crazy speed of 630 km / s.
Immensity, movement, speed, light ... were the words that guided me while composing. This scenario of a celestial horizon so large is a source of inspiration teeming with colors for my imagination as an orchestrator! So I wanted to find musical resonances in this fascinating world of the infinitely large.
Like Haydn's Symphony No. 103, Laniakea opens with a rolling timpani. It will come back during the piece in different forms: sometimes "bare", sometimes in the background or even in relay with the bass drum.
Laniakea is presented as a cosmic fresco articulated in three episodes preceded by an introduction and ended with a coda.
Powerful and majestic, the introduction presents a theme of brass and bells on a roll of timpani. The strings form a resonant and vibrant "sound wall". The material is gradually transformed. The antlers blend into the strings and become liquid. The brass theme unfolding on this shimmering texture becomes softer and softer, eventually dissolving and giving way to light.
The first large part begins with a motif of oboe, glockenspiel and treble string harmonics: so many luminous particles attempting to pierce this immense sky. The vibraphone and the woods create a reverberating layer and help give this passage a celestial and sparkling color.
The texture becomes more rhythmic with the birth of a swirling and repetitive motif on the violas. In this hypnotic episode, the theme of the introduction is recalled to bells and horns. It is intensifying. Matter spreads. Glockenspiel and harmonics - luminous keys - are suffused with stellar wind with the suspended cymbal roll. A more lyrical and bewitching theme appears on the cellos. It will be presented with different colors going to violins then to violas. The appearance of the glissando mib-ré on trombones is a signal: we move gradually into the second part. The rhythmic motif is extinguished and the material becomes more and more nebulous.
In this darker part, this semitone is omnipresent: slipped in the horns, in harmonics in the strings, plaintive in the woodwinds. Here, I wanted to express the mystery of this Great Attractor, of this vertiginous slide of matter grabbed by the void. The weightless clusters get thicker and richer. The material ends up rumbling and gives birth to a floating, hazy and more lyrical passage. A serious and mysterious fifth with trombones announces the end of this part. The trumpets remind us of the brass theme of the introduction. Their impulses echo in the woods - like the tail of a shooting star which still shines after its passage.
The last episode is a luminous and festive cosmic dance, tinged with celestial colors. I imagined a hypnotic ballet of star clouds shrouded in stellar dust. To create this luminous halo, I animated the backgrounds with repeated eighth notes as outfits and light bellows to give them life. While composing, I also had in mind certain textures of organ sets. This dance is based on a looping rhythmic pattern that travels between groups: a dizzying and hypnotic ballet of stars moving at mind-blowing speeds. It leads to a first lyrical and flamboyant climax. A last pas de deux of stars continues and exults by igniting in a great crescendo of light.
A sudden roll of the timpani brings us back to the original vastness and power. This great coda reminds us that Laniakea is an immense celestial horizon that we cannot comprehend. In the distance, the light gradually goes out. The matter disintegrates and ends up being lost in space.

Camille Pepin