ENRICO CHAPELA BARBA
COMPOSER
ANTIPHASER
Concerto for electric violin and symphony orchestra
Co-commissioned by the Scottish BBC and the Seattle Symphony, 2020.
Gravity locks the Moon, forcing one of its faces to be oriented towards Earth. Selenites inhabiting the lunar equator would see the globe fixed at the zenith, slowly changing its phases as the synodic cycle progresses. The Earth's phases are complementary to the Moon's; if the planet wanes, the satellite waxes; if one is full, the other is absent. When the Earth's shadow is projected onto the Moon, the lunarians witness a solar eclipse, while earthlings perceive a lunar one.
At the moment of totality, the solar rays pass through the Earth's atmosphere, enveloping the Moon in a somber reddish glow, which the selenites perceive as a fiery ring encompassing the darkened planet. This annular twilight is the sum of every sunrise and sunset on the blue horizon, where earthlings located in the penumbra witness, rising at dawn or setting at dusk, the Moon eclipsed by the fervent shadow of the Earth.
First movement
Second movement
Third movement
Fourth movement
Moon
New
Crescent
Full
Lunar Eclipse
Earth
Full
Waning
New
Solar Eclipse
Seattle Symphony.
Andrew Litton conductor.
Pekka Kuusisto, electric violin.
Performances
Benaroya Hall, Pekka Kuusisto e-violin, Seattle Symphony, Alexander Shelly, director.
Benaroya Hall, Pekka Kuusisto e-violin, Seattle Symphony, Alexander Shelly, director.
World Premiere. Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA, EUA. Pekka Kuusisto e-violin, Seattle Symphony, Alexander Shelly, director.
November 6, 2022
November 5, 2022
November 3, 2022