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Celestial Bodies is informed by Eastern and Western musical traditions and the
composers who bridge these traditions. Bright Sheng is one such composer with a history of
integrating Western and Eastern musical aesthetics.
Each myth selected for Celestial Bodies engages with the concept of the Heavens and the
sky. As I read many iterations of these myths, I uncovered unexpected deviations in the folk
stories that revealed different personalities and motivations in the mythic subjects.
In composing Celestial Bodies, I examined certain interpretations of Eastern music that
Western composers had authored. Claude Debussy (18621918) was a focal point of this
research. Debussy was influenced by Javanese Gamelan, and this exoticism is evidenced in his
piano composition, Voiles. In studying Debussy’s piano composition Voiles , a theme of using
nonWestern scales, such as the wholetone scale emerges.
The American experimentalist composers Henry Cowell and George Crumb pioneered
the use of extended techniques for piano. Henry Cowell used extended technique to convey Irish
myths in his compositions, and George Crumb has used extended techniques and set folk songs
in his piano music in fascinating ways.
The research I conducted in creating Celestial Bodies informed the composition and
overall resulting sound. The information in this document is necessary context in an informed
listening of my compositions. It will also supply readers with the motivations behind my
compositional choices.
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