TOTALITY

Composed 2017 - Revised 2020

Duration: 5 minutes | Grade 4 Orchestra

Ancient civilizations made up stories to try to explain why the sun suddenly disappears. Whether it’s devouring demons, or anger of the gods, none can contest the majesty of this rare phenomena. And to this day, we still acknowledge solar eclipses as one of the closest occurrences to the unnatural. Composed for the August 2017 Solar Eclipse in the United States, Totality depicts the full celestial event in music; from beginning to end.

I decided to make this composition for the 2017 Solar Eclipse because it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. To witness the sky, go dark sent chills in me and I wanted to write music dedicated to that feeling. I composed this track in only one day, Monday, 21, 2017, the day of the Solar Eclipse. It also happened to be the day before my birthday. I originally composed this for soundtrack purposes but now it has been transcribed for orchestra.

The music is fairly straightforward. The music begins with loud booming percussion, followed by a small melody played by the mallet percussions, representing the stars. We are then introduced to a melody depicting the actual alignment. This melody will follow the rest of the composition as it grows bigger and louder. And just like complete totality, the climax of the piece changes the melody into something darker. The music then dims and lessen until it comes to the end, reintroducing the small melody by the mallet percussion. I hope that by creating this music, I do justice to one of the universe’s most transcendent events to ever happen in a person’s lifetime.