• Symphony no. 5 opus 87, Veneris Transitus Symphoniae is scored for brass instruments, cosmic sounds, moving images and text. Minimum instrumentation: 49 horns, 35 trumpets, 42 tenor trombones, 14 bass trombones, 28 euphoniums, 21 tubas and 7 valve-less brass instruments. No mutes are required. This symphony is specifically conceived to be performed outdoors and in an echoic acoustic environment. The seven groups of brass instruments should be positioned as far as possible from each other. This symphony includes seven interpolations (pages 2, 15, 28, 40, 58 and 62). Videos and cosmic sounds are incorporated during these interpolations. Their duration and content is left to the discretion of the performers.

   

   

   

• Duration: 49'
• in 1 movement of 21 sections
• Composed in 2012
• First performance: 05.06.12 A large orchestra of brass instruments from 19 Singaporean bands, wind or symphonic orchestras, conducted by R Casteels National University of Singapore, Town Green @ University Town
• ISMN: 979-0-9016513-1-9
• Parts: To rent the parts, please email <rc@robertcasteels.com>
• Downloadable scores for inspection:
  5th_Symphony.pdf

Science is of great interest to me, because of the fact that the same brain in which beauty and feelings originate still obeys the laws of physics and chemistry. Science connects everybody at the conscious factual level, because until disproven, a fact is a fact. I believe art's raison d' être is that genuine art connects everybody at the subconscious level. The submerged part of our personalities is not less important than the visible part of the iceberg. Like any fellow human being, I am both utterly meaningless on a cosmic scale, and particularly meaningful in my unicity. I wonder about the non-human world. I wonder about the beautiful designs found in nature. Without anthropomorphizing, I try to understand infinity. By the time light traveling great distances has reached me, the star that sent that light may have ceased to exist. In other words, I am looking into the past. Being a musician per definition obsessed with sound, I wonder if I can also listen into the past. Can my eardrum ride on the electromagnetic field that spans the universe? Far inside and far outside, the human mind and the universe seem to be an infinite number of infinities. An infinite succession… of… infinities? I try to understand eternity, a reality where time is absent. Super-nano and super-macro join in a reality made up of a number of non-realities. Hence, the inclusion of the accompanying personal text written by playwright Huzir Sulaiman. The introspection in the human mind magnifies the extraspection into the universe. Perhaps I could get to know myself beyond the personal. As a musical tone is the momentary interruption of silence, my life is only the interval between two silences,  a time span during which I recycle information and memory, coming from dust and returning to dust. The weight of a musical tone is related to the weight of its surrounding silence. Different tempi are superimposed like clocks of differing gravitational fields that measure their own local flow of time. The staccato note is the ultimate reduction of the infinite legato. This led me to imagine an outdoor music piece in which spatialised instruments surround the audience.

A word about the musical discourse of Venus Transit. The universe continuously recycles matter and energy. A single pitch develops according to a continuous process that recycles rhythms and intervals. This may give the impression of randomness and chaos. Crescendi are created by the sheer addition of instruments. Velocity increase is created by superimposing rhythmic cells. Clusters of sounds implode and fade away like glowing embers, or explode like supernovas. Being a typical homo sapiens fearing annihilation and therefore predisposed to look for patterns and ontological answers, I send out anthropomorphic calls, sort of ascending De Profundis in the form of homophonic and homo-rhythmic melodies. The choice of instruments is restricted to brass which can play outdoors (for which they were after all designed). The alphorn produce natural non-tempered harmonics.

At rehearsal number 16, a large screen becomes the score for the musicians who play by following the movement of certain stars. The stars are classified according to a colour range from blue to red, using the following letters: O (blue), B, A, F, G (yellow), K and M (red). At rehearsal figure 3, the colour (or temperature) of 42 stars determines the selection of an instrument according to the following conversion: O to B1 for trumpets, B2 to B9 for trombones, A for euphoniums, F and G for horns, K and M for tubas. Furthermore, the magnitude (or brightness) of these 42 stars determined the dynamics of the instruments: m < 0 (the brightest) → fff dynamic, m = 0-0.) → ff, m = 0.6-1.5 → f, m = 1.5-2 → mf, m = 2-2.6 → mp, m = 2.6-2.9 → p and m = 2.9-3.0→ pp.

At rehearsal figure 27, whole groups of instruments have their own tempo and play by following the orbital movements of Jupiter's Galilean moons. Each instrumental group is assigned to Jupiter and each of its four largest (Galilean) moons. Io, the innermost and fastest moving moon, is associated with the high-pitched trumpets (playing at a tempo of crotchet = 133). At the other end, the deep tubas follow the slow-moving outermost moon Callisto (tempo: crotchet = 77). Between these extremes come the tenor trombones (tempo 91) "orbiting" like Ganymede, while faster Europa sets the pace for the euphoniums (tempo 119). In the centre of it all comes Jupiter itself, imaged in sound by horns and bass trombones at tempo 105.

World premiere.

The world premiere took place on 5 June 2012 at NUS, Town Green @ University Town in the context of the Venus Transit visible the following morning. The composer conducted an orchestra of brass instruments from 19 bands, wind or symphonic orchestras. Richard Strom and Tan Peng Kian created the visuals that were projected on a large screen. If the shape of the lawn would be reduced to a circle and the conductor and large screen positioned at 7 o’clock, the instrumental groups were positioned as following: horns at 1, alphorn at 2, trombones at 3, euphoniums at 5, tubas at 9 and trumpets at 11 o’clock. Despite the great distance, players were able to see the conductor’s beat projected on the screen. Playwright Huzir Sulaiman wrote the text that was narrated by actress Claire Wong. A click track in one ear enabled the conductor to maintain exact tempi despite the delay of the sound, and the delay between the sound and the image on the screen. Some cosmic micro-wave signals were captured in real time thanks to a group of physicists from the NUS Physics department and members of the Hwa Chong astronomy club. Other cosmic signals from the Cassini Satellite were pre-recorded and played back. The video recording of the lunar eclipse of 4 June 2012 was not projected because clouds had obscured its visibility.