Jenny Payne Senior Recital Feb 2011 Astronomer

Recorded on February 24, 2011, by Kevin J Cope, Michael Tavani on Cello, Katie Jordan on Flute.

Quote from composer: "Based upon a poem by Walt Whitman, "When I heard the learned astronomer," this piece explores both the analytical and the spiritual aspects of gazing at the stars. Beginning with a beautiful and simple pentatonic melody in the flute, the piece begins to wind into a more layered and complex sound for the first four lines of text. In these lines the speaker is listening to an astronomer lecture about the nature of the stars Once the speaker in the poem grows tired of the lecture, he departs and simply gazes at the stars. Only after doing this does he realize that the beauty of the stars is not in mathematically analyzing them, but in enjoying their natural beauty.:

When I heard the learn'd astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them; When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the starts.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Senior Recital
• Jenny Payne
• Astronomer
• Walt Whitman
• Kevin J Cope
• Vanguard University