"Had Jupiter been several dozen times more massive, the matter in its interior would have undergone thermonuclear reactions, and Jupiter would have begun to shine by its own light. The largest planet is a star that failed."
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos (1980)

The largest and oldest planet in the solar system, the gas giant Jupiter, has a mass 2.5 times greater than all the other planets combined. Like the Sun, Jupiter is primarily composed of helium and hydrogen and has no solid surface. Instead, the planet mainly consists of swirling gas and liquid. Hundreds of moons orbit around the planet, with the four largest (Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa) having been discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. Jupiter’s core remains a mystery. Is it a massive ball of rock, metal, and ice? Or is there no core at all? Did it once exist, only to erode away?In this work, I explore some of Jupiter’s characteristics as musical elements. A sonorous core of metal instruments, crotales, and brass is surrounded by layers of air and noise, swirling in and out of one another. Atypical techniques and objects are employed by several of the musicians to create new sounds. Among these are four bowls with rotating objects distributed throughout the ensemble.

Commissioned and premiered by the Norwegian Academy of Music Sinfonietta and conductor Rolf Gupta in 2024.

Instrumentation: fl, ob, cl (b.cl), sop. sax (ten. sax), bsn, hn, trp, tbn, tb, 2 perc, pno, 2 vln, vla, vlc, cb

Duration: 8’