Output details

Wonder: a Scientific Oratorio

Wonder is a 50 minute oratorio for symphony orchestra, 2 choirs and 2 vocal soloists, incorporating visual projections. It was commissioned by the BBC Philharmonic to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death, and the International Astronomical Union's International Year of Astronomy in 2009, and was a research collaboration with Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics.

The piece addressed questions such as:

Can the religious form of the oratorio be adapted as a secular work communicating the scientific interpretation of the origins of the universe?

Can scientific terminology be set to music in a way that it becomes accessible to amateur chorus members?

Can observational data be used to generate musical material which can both function in a publically accessible piece and retain a close relationship with the originating data?

The libretto by Philip Goulding addressed seven agreed themes provided by Jodrell Bank. These themes were also used as an accompanying science communication project for 200 year-8 pupils across Salford. We used scientific data to generate pitch and orchestration, for example, the atomic number of the elements in the periodic table generated the rhythms of a gospel-tinged fugue. The libretto was co-developed with partners from Jodrell Bank. While many composers have used astronomical concepts as an inspiration for their work - such as Philip Cashian (Io) and Kaija Saariaho (Toutatis) this was the first time a work has been created which precisely communicates scientific knowledge about the development of the universe in an accessible way. The work was supported by a Leverhulme Fellowship (£7106) and by an ACE grant for associated arts/science outreach project.

Wonder: a Scientific Oratorio is requested to be double weighted here by virtue of its size: 50 minutes of fully scored music for symphony orchestra, two choirs and soloists, and the complexity of its collaborative approach. The libretto for the oratorio was written in consultation with astronomers from the Joddrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester to ensure scientific accuracy (in effect, a further process of “peer review”). Data provided by Jodrell Bank was transformed into pitch for some sections of the work, so that the music is a direct sonification of astronomical observations. The whole project represents two and a half years of research time.