SRSYO Gives Star Dust and Dark Matter Its World Premiere

Composer Gloria Coates. Photo by Simon Leigh

At the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra's Bon Voyage Concert June 16 in Weill Hall at the Green Music Center, young musicians of the SRSYO had a singular privilege: to give the world premiere of a composition by a world-class composer—Star Dust and Dark Matter, by Gloria Coates. Coates may not be well known to the average music lover in Sonoma County, but she has a worldwide reputation and is particularly well known in Germany (although US born, she has lived in Munich since 1969). She has written 16 symphonies and nine string quartets, numerous songs and solo pieces, and electronic music as well as music for theater in addition to other orchestral and chamber works.

Coates is known for her use of repeated structures, a fondness for glissandi (long strings of slurred notes), use of semitones, and asking performers to do the unconventional with their instruments. Star Dust and Dark Matter is typical in these respects. As conductor Dr. Richard Loheyde pointed out from the stage before starting the performance, Star Dust and Dark Matter has as its armature a pentatonic scale repeated throughout the piece but varied as it is passed around the orchestra, the five basic notes raised or lowered by octaves, obscured by an overlay of glissandi, undermined by semitones, or perforated by staccato trumpet notes. The piece builds to a crescendo of shimmering sound that seems to slowly breathe. The use of the pentatonic scale gives the piece an Asian feel. It's reminiscent of ancient Japanese court music, derived from earlier Chinese models. But the piece belongs to Santa Rosa and the SRSYO. It was commissioned for the group by Sonoma County residents Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hoffman.

The SRSYO has given Star Dust and Dark Matter its world premiere and will give the piece its European premiere while on tour between June 19 and June 28 with stops in Salzburg, Vienna, and Budapest.