Search Music:

Felicity Williams  

Psalm of Stars

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 1993
for children's choir, with piccolo, percussion and piano accompaniment

• Programme Note

  I was Composer-in-residence at Elmwood Normal School and and in mind to write a cantata for the massed choirs there. I was searching for a subject that would capture both my imagination and that of the children for whom it was to be written. My father is a scientist and the conversation he mentioned that pulsars (rapidly spinning, extremely dense stars) emit electromagnetic waves. When these waves are fed through a household radio set, part of the wave reproduces as an audible tone. A PhD research student working with pulsars, who also had an interest in music, wrote out the tones of various pulsars. I found this intriguing and promptly decided to use the theme of astronomy for the proposed work. To my amazement, when my father showed me the pulsar music written out on a treble and bass stave, the audible tones were clustered around an E major chord with some additional notes added. Thus Psalm of Stars came into being. These 13 notes became the germinal idea on which the whole work was based.

• Availability

  • Williams, F.: Psalm of Stars (vocal part); computer-set 

    Parts - written | Hardcopy - computer set
    

  • Williams, F.: The Psalm of Stars; computer set 

    Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
    
    $9.00
    • • Quantity:
    • Borrow

  • Contemporary Canterbury 

    CD
    
    $30.00
    • • Quantity:
    • Borrow