‘Music of the Spheres’  has become one of Philip Sparke’s most popular contest compositions since its premiere at the European Championships in 2004. 

Time and familiarity have not diminished its stature, although much like Philip Wilby’s ‘Paganini Variations’  (1991) or Oliver Waespi’s ‘Audivi Media Nocte’  (2011) – both of which have also gained lasting acclaim after their first performances, it has been accompanied by a huge amount of misplaced ambition – especially by performers.

For conductors to ‘tick-off’ works such as these from a personal ‘bucket list’ of favourites robs audiences of the opportunity to fully appreciate just how well-crafted they are as tests of both musicality as well as virtuosity.

Small percentage

‘Music of the Spheres’  has been picked 150 times and counting as an own-choice selection, whilst ‘Paganini’  has been played 330 plus occasions to date and ‘Audivi’  over 40. Yet in truth, only a small percentage of these have truthfully mastered their musical and technical challenges rather than displaying little more than laboured endeavour.

That’s why the choice by British Open Artistic Advisor Dr Robert Childs to pick it from Philip Sparke’s extensive ‘hit-list’ of elite level contesting works has been such an informed one. 

Quality and excellence

Unlike many of his other compositions, from ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’  (1980) to ‘A Road Less Travelled By’  (2020), it has only been previously used as a set-work once – and that was at the French Nationals in 2018 when it was performed by just three bands.

Since 2004, all other renditions have been set against other own-choice selections. Now though there will be 19 performances to evaluate in direct comparative quality and excellence by adjudicators Martyn Brabbins, Arsené Duc and David Hirst (above).  

Only the very best bands will master it completely – and only then accompanied by musical insight that appreciates the very clear intentions laid down with such craftsmanship in the score.

No easy option

Gone will be the contest day hiding place for those who think dynamic camouflage will help, no ‘easy option’ substitutions or meaningless conductor inspired effects designed to wow the retinas of the audience for a brief moment like a cheap firework, whilst still sounding like a damp squib in the box. 

Only the very best bands will master it completely – and only then accompanied by musical insight that appreciates the very clear intentions laid down with such craftsmanship in the score.

Rhetoric

The inspiration for ‘Music of the Spheres’  is equally well known and reflects the composer’s fascination with space (a subject he has tapped into on a few occasions over the years) and our appreciation of its known and unknown properties.

The title comes from the Pythagorean theory that the cosmos is governed by the same laws that apply to the ratios of the note frequencies of the Greek musical scale – monophonic rather than harmonic, that he believed emanated (although no one could hear them) from the six known planets of the time. 

In it way it reflects concepts of mathematical, tonal, ethical and unified discipline – a type of musical rhetoric that was also explored in oratory form a bit earlier by Hermogenes of Tarsus.  

Unified discipline

In it way it reflects concepts of mathematical, tonal, ethical and unified discipline – a type of musical rhetoric that was also explored in oratory form a bit earlier by Hermogenes of Tarsus.  

He proposed arguments should be put forward on a subject based on the elements of clarity, grandeur, beauty, rapidity, ethos, sincerity and force – all of which can certainly be found in Philip Sparke’s work. 

Time equals zero

The composer uses six planetary notes to form the basis of two sections of the work – ‘Music of the Spheres’  and ‘Harmonia’,  whilst the others are personal explorations that follow a mysterious opening ‘t=0’  (time equals zero) heralded by a plaintive tenor horn (above).  

The ‘Big Bang’  creation (below) of matter, anti-matter, life, love, death and all things eternally in-between follows – rapid, energised and packed with Sparke’s DNA detailing that is to be found elsewhere.

Flow and shaping

A mediation on what has been created comes in ‘The Lonely Planet’, subtly marked in expression, balance and essential pacing for soloists and ensemble alike – led by the baritone but threaded seamlessly across the main solo lines underpinned by the subtle sounds of the tubas and tuned percussion.  

This is music of subtle solo flow and shaping, the rhythmic pulse in ratios of threes against fours before ending with tender dynamic composure.  

This is music of subtle solo flow and shaping, the rhythmic pulse in ratios of threes against fours before ending with tender dynamic composure.  

It’s back to the heavens above to follow and the fleet-footed mercurial feel of ‘Asteroids & Shooting Stars’  – light and razor sharp with its playfulness, rhythmically taut and lean before earthly tethering is revealed in ‘Harmonia’  with its building sense of grandeur.

The Unknown

Everything consolidates into ‘The Unknown’  (paced exactly as the opening ‘Big Bang’) which is packed with optimism, verve and contained, muscular excitement - not overblown bombast, or misplaced acceleration.  The speed of the composer’s ‘light’ is 144 – there is no extra warp drive speed to bring the piece to its thumping conclusion.

The speed of the composer’s ‘light’ is 144 – there is no extra warp drive speed to bring the piece to its thumping conclusion.

The very best bands and conductors that can combine an acute appreciation of Philip Sparke’s intuitive writing (he himself called it a work of ‘musical instinct rather than intellectual plotting’) will perhaps succeed best in capturing his description of its “visceral intensity”. 

Those who don’t will have lost the thread of their musical rhetoric long before its end. 

Iwan Fox 
Music of the Spheres extracts published by kind permission of Philip Sparke, Anglo Music and Hal Leonard