Voice and ensemble

The Stargazer

Stargazer image - old pen and ink drawing of the crystal spheres

Lynne Plowman (2002)

Click here for a full list of instrument abbreviations and an explanation of score ordering

In 2001, I was invited by the London Mozart Players to compose a piece which would have some connection with the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, to celebrate the orchestra's residency there. Having never set foot in that part of the country before, I started by spending a week, in December 2001, exploring the area, armed with an ordinance survey map, some sturdy walking boots and a pile of library books ranging from Lincolnshire ghost stories to the poems of Alfred Tennyson.

I walked in the wolds and along the coast, visited towns and villages. I was very lucky with the weather - winter sunshine and huge clear skies. One of my favourite discoveries was Gibraltar Point, where I walked far out onto the wash to see the seals. One of my other favourite haunts was the garden outside my holiday cottage in the tiny village of Great Sturton, where at night, with little light pollution and a vast sky, I had a stunning view of the Milky Way.

The Stargazer started to fall into place when I discovered several Lincolnshire folk all linked by a fascinating theme. John Harrison invented the first clock used for celestial navigation, Michael Foale is astronaut born in Louth who spent four months on the Mir Space Station and Sir Isaac Newton needs no introduction. I began to select any fragments from Tennyson poems relating to the stars, which seemed to suggest musical shapes and ideas.

I decided I would try to write a piece which would bring all these elements together by setting some of Tennyson's beautiful, melodic writing on the stars over spinning and sparkling rhythmic musical textures. I wanted to explore the relationship between the poet and the scientist: the search for beauty, lyricism and perfection partnered with the quest for knowledge and understanding of the universe.

The Stargazer evolved slowly and gradually over the next six months. I began to experiment with a rising harmonic structure and also with intricate string textures. Tennyson's poetry invoked a very lyrical, melodic style and gradually, I began to mould these different layers together. As well as Tennyson, I took some text from other sources: Isaac Newton; Neil Armstrong; Robert Graves; Kevin Crossley-Holland, and the names of some of the stars in the Northern Hemisphere, from the constellations of Lyra, the harp, representing the poet and Orion, the hunter, representing the scientist:

Tennyson, In Memoriam

" The stars", she whispers, "blindly run:
A web is wov'n across the sky;
From our waste places comes a cry,
And murmurs from the dying sun."

Lyra

Sulafat, Sheliak, Vega - stars in the constellation of Lyra, the harp

Tennyson, Far-Far-Away

Far, far, how far? from o'er the gates of birth,
The faint horizons, all the bounds of earth,

A whisper from his dawn of life? a breath
From some fair dawn beyond the doors of death.
Far far away?

Tennyson, Chorus from an unpublished drama

Sirius, Arcturus (among the brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere)

Each sun which from the centre flings
Grand music and redundant fire,
The burning belts, the mighty rings,
the murmurous planets' rolling choir,

The globefilled arch, cleaving air,
The lawless comets as they glare,
And thunder through the sapphire deeps
In wayward strength, are full of strange
Astonishment and boundless change.

John Conduit on Isaac Newton

It came into his thought that the power of gravity (which brought an apple from the tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from the earth but that this power must extend much farther than was usually thought." Why not as high as the moon?"

Neil Armstrong

That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.

Robert Graves, Star-Talk

"What do you hunt, Orion, this starry night?"
" The Ram, the Bull and the Lion,
And the Great Bear", says Orion,
" With my starry quiver and beautiful belt,
I am trying to find a good thick pelt,
To warm my shoulders tonight,
To warm my shoulders tonight."

Orion

Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel, Alnitak, Alnilem, Mintaka - stars in the constellation of Orion, the hunter

Kevin Crossley-Holland, from "Dusk, Burnham- Overy-Staithe" and "An Approach to the Marsh"

The blue hour ends, this world
floats on a great stillness.

I only guess where marsh finishes and sky begins,
each grows out of the other.

This is no man's land...

Tennyson, The Dreamer

Darkened with doubts of a faith that saves,
And crimson with battles, and hollow with graves,
To the wail of my winds and the moan of my waves
I whirl and follow the sun.

The Stargazer was performed by the LMP with Ashley Catling (tenor), conducted by David Juritz on 16th, 17th and 18th October 2002 in Lincolnshire and again in Suffolk in 2003.  A recording is due for release on cd later this year.