Cosmosis

Susan Botti

Subtitle: Wind Ensemble, Solo Soprano and Women's Voices

General Info

Year: 2005
Duration: c. 21:25
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: SUBO Music
Cost: Score and Parts - $115.00 | Score Only - $75.00 | Hardbound Vocal Score - $20.00

Movements (played without pause)

1. Overboard (Prologue) - 3:07
2. The 1st Night - 5:45
3. Interlude - 4:40
4. The 2nd Night - 7:45

Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe
English Horn
Bassoon
Contrabassoon
A Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Contra Alto-Clarinet
C Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Tuba
String Bass I-II
Harp
Piano
Timpani
Percussion, including:

Cabasa
Chinese Toms
Crash Cymbals
Crotales
Frame Drum (large)
Glockenspiel
Saw
Shaker
Slapstick
Tam-Tam
Vibraphone
Woodblock

Soprano voice
Women's Chorus (20-60)

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Cosmosis was created for the talented and inspirational music students at the University of Michigan to tap their boundless imaginations.

The American poet May Swenson wrote The Cross Spider in response to the news of a Skylab experiment in which a student project proposed to see whether a spider could spin a web in space. A common cross spider (araneus diadematus), named Arabella, is mythically portrayed by Swenson. Her shape poem Overboard (a play of gravity) serves as a prelude.

In Cosmosis, Overboard plays with musical equivalents of gravitational force following the shapes laid out in the poem, before entering the gravitation-free sea of space. Here, Arabella succeeds in her quest on The First Night. A musical interlude follows, reflecting on the vastness of space as well as the heroic undertaking. In The Second Night, Arabella succeeds again ... but is sacrificed in the process ... "experiment frittered." Yet the resonant energy of the mission still spins in the air, like the sound waves in space that echo throughout the cosmos, becoming a part of it, and inspiring others.

Cosmosis for wind ensemble, solo soprano and women's voices was commissioned by a consortium organized by Michael Haithcock, director of bands at the University of Michigan, and including the additional participants: Baylor University (Kevin Sedatole), Florida State University (Patrick Dunnigan), Michigan State University (John Whitwell), and University of Texas-Austin (Jerry Junkin).

- Program note by composer

The premiere took place on February 25, 2005, in Carnegie Hall.

Media

Audio: Reference recording, Ensemble and conductor unknown
Audio CD: University of Michigan Symphonic Band (Michael Haithcock, conductor)

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Baylor University (Waco, Tx.) Wind Ensemble (J. Eric Wilson, conductor; Baylor Bella Voce; Amy Petrongelli, soprano) – 31 March 2022 (CBDNA 2022 Southwestern Conference, Waco, Tx.)
Boston (Mass.) Conservatory Wind Ensemble (Vimbayi Kaziboni, conductor) – 12 December 2019
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Symphony Band (Michael Haithcock, conductor; Susan Botti, soprano; Women of the University of Michigan Chamber Choir) – 25 February 2005 (CBDNA 2005 National Conference, New York, N.Y.)

Works for Winds by This Composer

Cosmosis (2005)
Eye of the Hawk (2015)
Sull’ala (2013)
Terra Cruda (2011)
Vespers (2022)

Resources

Botti, S.; Swenson, M. (2004). Cosmosis: wind ensemble, solo soprano and women's voices : 2004 [score]. Subo Music: Red Hook, N.Y.
Cosmosis, Susan Botti website Accessed 20 August 2016