Exponential Ensemble performing Titan by Marc Mellits

Marc Mellits: Titan (2018)
http://www.marcmellits.com

00:00 - I. Saturn
02:52 - II. Vänern Kivu Hammar
05:57 - III. Harada
08:18 - IV. Hyperion Choroid
10:57 - V. Liquid Methane Rain
14:41 - VI. Dispersed Retina
17:17 - VII. Velvet Kickbox Hydroxy
19:07 - VIII. Phoebe & Janus

Pascal Archer, Bass Clarinet
Christine Wu, Violin
Yezu Woo, Violin
Ramón Carrero-Martínez, Viola
Sofia Nowik, Cello

Recorded on November 16, 2023
Marc A. Scorca Hall, New York City

Program notes

Titan is Saturn’s largest moon. It is a mammoth icy world with a dense, golden, hazy atmosphere. It has rivers and lakes of liquid methane, and an active cycle of rain flowing to the surface, and then evaporating back into the sky. It is the only other known body in space, other than Earth, to have stable bodies of lakes and seas. Within this cold and formidable land, there is also otherworldly joy, full of inspiration.

The music in my Titan is in eight, short, interconnected movements of play depicting a joyful life for our fictional interstellar friends. The motives of music also circulate, like rain, throughout all eight movements, and form eight different bodies of sound.

The Bass Clarinet serves as an anchor, and a “Titan,” for which the rings of music circle. All musical material stem from the sound of the integration of the Bass Clarinet within its four rotating, golden, hazy, and “string-like” atmospheric rings. Within this world, Phoebe and Janus might not be able to see very well, but they love to swim in the healing methane lakes of Vänern, Kivu, and Hammar.

-Marc Mellits