Description
Originally written for a “Delian” suite for various composers remembering Schoenberg back in 2006,
I have now revised it and provided separate parts.
The piece is atonal and satirically based on “Twinkle twinkle little star”
by way of a supposed reaction from Pluto after it was relegated from “planet”
to “dwarf planet” by astronomers here on earth.
I wrote the following introduction for the Delian suite version:
“‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ (Jane Taylor’s poem used for the tune
to the French song “Ah, vous dirai-je maman”) is given an atonal treatment,
for string quartet, in memory of the ‘lost’ planet of Pluto. Of course Pluto
is still there, merely changed in the human taxonomy, which deems it
to be no longer a planet. Similarly “Twinkle, Twinkle” is no longer
a nursery rhyme but a strange atonal piece with memories of its past self
moving towards an unknown space. It will be curious to know at which age
a child recognises the twinkle-twinkle motif in this new, totally
untraditional version. However, atonal though it is,
it still appears to have some kind of ‘home.'”
“‘Ah, vous dirai-je maman, ce qui cause mon tourment,’
ce n’est plus la petite chanson d’enfants,
elle s’en va vers les étoiles dans un astronef de quatuor à cordes atonal.
Son tourment?: Sa lamentation ne vise que la taxonomie humaine des planètes
—Pluton, tu n’est plus planète? Maman! où se trouve la réalité,
où se trouve notre domicile? Nous avons tous nos taxonomies,
mais la réalité est en dehors…
Le sens de tonalité est en dehors…
Mais malgré tout, on reconnaît la mélodie… N’est-ce pas?”
The video is a live performance by musicians in Costa Rica