Welcome to this week’s edition of FHS Musical Moment.
Starburst by Jessie Montgomery
Starburst is an energetic contemporary piece, fizzing with excitement, written for strings by Jessie Montgomery in 2013. Montgomery is a young celebrated American Composer, Violinist and Educator who has had her music performed all over the world. She combines classical music writing with modern musical ideas and enjoys creating music that incorporates non-musical ideas, like this week’s pick!
The music explodes at the beginning and the lively pulsating ideas capture the image of intense creation of stars. ‘Starburst’ is defined as the rapid formation of many new stars at a rate high enough to alter the structure of the galaxy significantly – quite an exciting title and image. The explosive and fiery musical gestures are contrasted by gentle fleeting melodies to form a varied sound world, perfect to enjoy while picturing the mysterious outer space…
You can listen to Jessie talking about Starburst and her ideas behind the music here.
If you enjoy this and are interested to hear more, Jessie’s album Strum: Music for Strings by Jessie Montgomery offers a fantastic variety. Sit back and enjoy the array of musical colours created by the strings.
