The Gloucester Area Astronomy Club (GAAC) proudly presents a public concert by composer and pianist Bruce Lazarus featuring his major astronomy-themed solo piano work, Musical Explorations of the Messier Catalogue of Star Clusters and Nebulae, Saturday October 11, 2014, 7:00pm, at St Paul Lutheran Church in Lanesville, Massachusetts. Admission is $5.
Musical Explorations of the Messier Catalogue is a series of fourteen pieces inspired by the compilation of astronomical objects of French astronomer Charles Messier (1730-1817). Comet hunter Messier identified, with his small telescope, 110 celestial objects that resembled but were not comets, an extensive numerical "catalogue" of stunning beauty widely used by astronomers of the present day. Composer Lazarus writes of his 45-minute collection, composed between 2004 and 2011:
"Recent Hubble telescope photos of Charles Messier’s list of fuzzy objects in the clear night sky (now known as nebulae, star clusters, galaxies, and immense patches of interstellar gas) reveal vistas of extraordinary beauty and also great variation in energy patterning – spiraling, floating, exploding, diffusing – which suggest musical variations in rhythm, texture, formal design, and melodic elements. I decided to compose a series of musical descriptions of the fourteen most iconic images of these objects: starting with the familiar Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31), and later moving on to the Orion Nebula (M42), The Pleiades (M45), the most impressive of the globular clusters (M13), the Eagle Nebula with its majestic ‘pillars of star creation,’ and double stars, star clusters, novas and supernovas.
"Following the six-year process of composing my major opus, I switched roles to that of concert pianist recording a CD of the entire cycle, and performing these difficult but very personal scores in public. I am most grateful to GAAC for the opportunity to perform my Messier pieces in Lanesville.”
For directions and a map, click here: https://goo.gl/maps/JQz6F
GAAC’s October 11 live Messier performance will be accompanied by projected images of the individual objects. For more information on the Messier pieces, read Bruce Lazarus’ article on the Messier pieces in GAAC’s affiliated eJournal, The Galactic Inquirer.