Harmer, Will: Fireworks
From: £4.00
SATB unaccompanied (with divisions)
Emerging composer and singer Will Harmer has transformed the visual fantasia of fireworks into a stunning fantasia in sound, setting Victorian traveller Charlotte Anne Eaton’s gripping account of a stupendous display viewed at Rome’s Castel Sant’Angelo. Her first-hand descriptions of innumerable stars and volcanic eruptions are matched by choral writing of tremendous energy, building from the initial explosion through sparks and blazing cascades to an ecstatic vision of fiery serpents and scorpions in the sky. Before and after, the contrast of chemical formula and resulting vivid colour combinations, urgently chanted both in monotone and whispers, heightens the drama and compelling musical alchemy. Fireworks is a stand-out showcase of vocal pyrotechnics for any experienced choir and, from the first hissing fuse to the last whistling Catherine wheel, a brilliant addition to the genre of contemporary musical impressionism.
This title is available either as a printed copy by post or as a digital download with a 30-copy print licence. Please select:
Text sources:
US Geological Survey
US Geological Survey‘What minerals produce the colours in fireworks?'
https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/what-minerals-produce-colors-fireworks
Chemical/substance | Colour/effect | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Strontium | Deep Red | ||||||||
Strontium + Sodium | Brilliant Orange | ||||||||
Sodium | Yellow | ||||||||
Barium | Bright Green | ||||||||
Copper | Blue | ||||||||
Strontium + Copper | Lavender | ||||||||
Titanium, Zirconium, Magnesium | Silvery White | ||||||||
Iron filings | Gold sparks | ||||||||
Aluminium powder | ‘Bright flashes and loud bangs’ |
‘Illumination of St Peter’s, and Fireworks from the Castle San Angelo’
From the collection of letters ‘Rome in the Nineteenth Century’ (1817–1818) by Charlotte Anne
Eaton (1788–1859). First published in 1820 by Archibald Constable & Co. Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson and Co. London.
‘… a tremendous explosion, that represented the raging eruption of a volcano.’
‘Red sheets of fire seemed to blaze upwards into the glowing heavens, and then pour down their liquid streams upon the earth.’
‘Hundreds of immense wheels turned round … as if demons were whirling them, letting fall thousands of hissing dragons and scorpions and fiery snakes …’
‘Fountains and jets of fire threw up their blazing cascades into the skies. The whole vault of heaven shone with the vivid fires … innumerable stars and suns …’
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