David Handler - Solstice (Official Music Video)
Solstice is written for a divided string orchestra and “explores polarities of light and dark, the sacred and profane”, says Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times. Pastoral dance, hard work, and ethereal stasis are ideas represented by distinct musical material that recurs and is assigned (almost without exception) to the same instruments with each iteration.
The incongruity of these ideas is accentuated early in the piece. After a convergence and build to the piece's only unified effort by the total ensemble–a Dubstep-like dirge–the ideas are reintroduced one by one, not as disparate items as they once were but as complementary parts of a greater and triumphant whole.
Derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sister (to stand still), the solstice is the moment when the seasonal movement of the Sun's path (as seen from Earth) comes to a stop before reversing direction. This is experienced on most of Earth as the longest and shortest days of the year. Handler offers: “the idea of the solstice’s momentary stasis and the perception of its resulting extremes was a way of understanding the death of a dear relative, Martha Mercado Branagan, whose life and passing were the genesis of the piece.”
Music Composed and Produced by David Handler
Directed by Michael Sharp
Performed by Ensemble LPR
Titles by Andrew D. Zimbelman
Art Direction by Taphat Tawil
Produced by David Handler Music
Album Available on Streaming and Vinyl from Cantaloupe Music
Pre-order Vinyl: https://davidhandler.bandcamp.com
Stream: https://lnk.fuga.com/davidhandler_sol...
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