Symphony No. 7 - The Titan Alain Giroux

Movements

Sunrise on CoRot-7b - Lava Planet 4:12
Where Stars are Born 3:02
Lord of a Thousand Rings - Star J1407b 3:08
Departure - A Final Fare Thee Well to Earth. 3:03
Kraken Mare - Sailing the Seas of Titan - 5:21

I. Sunrise on CoRot-7b - Lava Planet. CoRoT-7b is an exoplanet that orbits CoRoT-7. It's located in the constellation Monoceros, about 500 light-years away. CoRoT-7b is very close to its star, CoRot-7. That star appears 360 times larger than the sun does in our sky. A typical sunrise on CoRot-7b takes temperatures from 1800°F to upwards of 4700°F. Currently, it's the only known planet in our universe suspected as being completely made of lava.

All the low instruments, including the use of many pedal tones represent the lava. There are two distinct sections of music depicting the heating up process titled Lava Fireflies and Dance with the Devil. The end of the movement programmatically reaches a 4700°F lava temperature that combined with its emitted gases, would instantly vaporize humans.

II. Where Stars are Born. Stars are formed when large clouds of gas and dust in space, called molecular clouds, collapse under their own gravity. This essentially causes dense cloud clumps to form and then heat up enough to initiate nuclear fusion, which gives birth to a new star. This process is referred to as stellar formation that occur within regions called stellar nurseries. There are many star forming regions in our galaxy including Orion's Nebula. Fifty million years is the average time it takes to create a single star.

This movement is full of solos from nearly every instrument, representing all the star creating stages. The music grows and ebbs several times. The music ends with a peaceful, newborn shine.

III. Lord of a Thousand Rings - Star J1407b. J1407b is 20 times more massive than Saturn. Its ring system is 180 million kilometers wide and is 200 times larger than Saturn's rings. Scientists now believe it to be unbound by gravity to any objects, making it a rogue planet. The last sighting of J1407b was in 2007, when it passed in front of the star J1407. It is widely believed that we will never see J1407b again.

The music reflects its rogue journey into our view and then eternally disappears. IV. Departure - A Final Fare Thee Well to Earth. Because of man's money over matter existence, we have essentially become a deadly plague to nearly all life on Earth. As a species, if we manage to survive long enough and create the technology needed, we will most likely have to leave Earth for a new world.

I have always loved Dvorak's New World Symphony, especially the hymn and what it represents. This movement depicts that departure with an A-B-A structure. The B section of this movement echoes Dvorak's haunting melody, but has my voice, our voices, as its harmonic structure.

V. Kraken Mare - Sailing the Seas of Titan. Titan is the only celestial body in our solar system with conditions similar to Earth. Its shell would protect us from radiation and its gravity is similar to that of our moon. The Huygens probe landed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, on January 14, 2005. The footage of it is captivating. Titan has many seas and bodies of hydrocarbons, which consists mostly of liquid methane. Kraken Mare is the largest of such bodies at nearly 5 times the size of Lake Superior. We could actually sail the seas of Titan. The gravity there would also allow us to fly like birds with even the crudest of homemade wings.

The music represents such sailing and flights, ending with a triumph of epic proportions.

- Program Note by composer