Sounds of the Zodiac

Sounds of the Zodiac - Concert of the SALT New Music Festival

It’s perhaps slightly ironic that the German post-war composer Karlheinz Stockhausen — author of what are arguably of the most ambitious and complex staged works ever created in the Western classical music canon — is best remembered for a series of short melodies that the composer himself once described as “cheerful, empty-headed little tunes”. While certainly short and often cheery, his Tierkreis: 12 Melodien der Sternzeichen (Zodiac: 12 Melodies of the Star Signs) are anything but empty-headed. These twelve character pieces, named after the twelve signs of the Zodiac, were originally composed for music boxes, each inspired by “the character of children, friends, and acquaintances who were born under [that star sign]”. The arrangement you’ll hear, by clarinettist Liam Hockley, has been grouped into the four seasons: Summer (Cancer, Leo, Virgo), Fall (Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius), Winter (Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces), and Spring (Aries, Taurus, Gemini). These seasons were presented to four Canadian composers — Hiroki Tsurumoto, Wolf Edwards, Annette Brosin, and Anna Pidgorna — as the basis for four new works that reenvision the seasons, climate change, astrology, and even Stockhausen himself through a uniquely 21st-century lens.

Host or Publisher SALT New Music Festival