Capella: Auriga for double quintet by Michel Plourde

A moody, modal piece based on a few phrases of different lengths being looped. I was trying to make a meditative piece for my Mom but it ended up being too minor for that (I should have thought lydian). It's part of my cycle "the Stars of the Constellations" for the constellation Auriga.

I played all the parts other than the double reeds and French horn (flute, clarinet, violin 1&2, viola, cello, psuedo-bass) which are realized in Finale with Garrittan virtual instruments. I tried to do it with solo lines (instead of an ensemble string section) but I still don't play that well so there are a few parts that are doubled - to sound better. The original sketch looped for 14-17 minutes until they all met up, but at some point around 2010 I decided to shorten it and concoct some kind of an ending to make it 7 to 8 minutes long. I think this is the 5th ending and I'm still not crazy about it, so maybe that will get a rewrite at some point.

Capella is the third brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere and the 6th brightest str in the night sky. It is a quadruple binary, with two large yellow giants closely revolving around each other and a pair of dim red dwarfs circling the larger pair at a distance of 10,000 AU. It is a relatively close neighbour star, only 42.9 light years distant and is one of the brightest sources of X-rays in the night sky.

App. Br.: +0.08 Ab. Br.: +0.296, +0.167, +9.53 +13.1

In Greek mythology, Capella was the goat that suckled Zeus as an infant and is one of the original 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy.