Heavens inspire far-out concert

“Our preoccupation with the sky, the stars and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.”

This simple quote by Eric Hoffer, American social writer and philosopher, seems to best sum up the gist of Pro Coro Canada’s upcoming concert this Sunday at McDougall United Church.

Music from Space, a notion introduced by artistic director Richard Sparks, starts off with a sublime introduction from the NASA Space Agency before it wings its way into two hours of music accompanied by 300 photographs.

Kathryn Sparks, a well-known digital imaging American artist, has sorted and edited through Hubble telescope imagery to create a collage that runs parallel to the music.

“These aren’t just a series of random photos but a thought-out selection of images that support and integrate with the sounds,” says associate director Trent Worthington.

The St. Albert resident was commissioned to write And Einstein Said, one of the four works on the program. At the time of the commission, Worthington was reading a book on Einstein and was struck by his knowledge in numerous disciplines.

“Many think of him as a mathematician. Others know him through the theory of relativity. He was informed not only on cosmology and physics, but also on philosophy and the ideas of God and a universe.”

The program’s feature composition is György Ligeti’s Lux Eterna, a work written in the 1960s that was used in Space Odyssey. “With the movie’s exposure it’s been associated with space. The text talks of an eternal light and it has a wide open spacious feel.”

An equally beautiful work is Urmas Sisak’s Gloria Patri, a series of 24 songs written in different styles. “He used a row of tones based on a planetal scale he built. He worked out the sound value for the rotation of the planets and when it was all said and done he reduced it to five notes.”

The final piece is Canadian composer Larry Nickel’s three-movement Creator Alme Siderum, a nod to the Creator. “It’s a very religious text that talks about God and makes references to the maker of the stars.”

Normally Pro Coro concerts are held in the afternoon but because of the church’s stained glass windows filtering light during the digital imaging presentation, the concert has been switched to the evening hours.