Totality for String Orchestra will be published: December 20, 2017
Performance Time: ca. 4 minutes long
Comic Strip will be part of the score
Grade 3 (maybe easier, but definitely not more difficult)
Violin III Treble clef Viola
I’m very excited to share this story.
Totality is the moment in a solar eclipse where the moon covers the sun completely. And depending on your location, you will experience more or less seconds of it.
This year the point of the longest eclipse was 2 minutes and 41.6 seconds near Carbondale, IL.
I watched the eclipse from Casper, WY where totality lasted 2′ 30″.
Not bad!
Casper had the best weather odds and it was the closest place to Albuquerque, a special place for me and a must-visit during the trip. So the location was ideal.
I’ve been doing amateur astronomy for about 13 years; visiting some of the best places on Earth to watch the night sky.
But THIS!
The Great American Eclipse was nothing like I’ve experienced. It was surreal, magical, simply the best show on Earth.
During totality, everyone can take their eclipse glasses off and enjoy the awesomeness and grandeur of the sky-show.
After totality, a friend discussed how our ancestors would have experienced such an event.
I thought that it would make a good short story to contrast the different perspectives of totality in the past and present times.
After all, the comic strip is only 2 pages long.
That gives me very little space to tell a longer story. But it’s exactly what I want.
I want music to play a big role in the storytelling.
The comic will help kids understand the main message while still leaving some gaps to the imagination.
The Short Story
A) Totality starts with a young boy run running toward his village. The sun is been eclipsed, the birds are confused and return to their nests. The kid reaches the village moments before totality. Everyone panics.
B) Part B of the story contrasts Part A. Now, in the present, we can predict where and when you’ll get totality. We see a boy preparing all his equipment for the event. He may have traveled many hours to stand on the path of totality. In the past, such an event would have caused chaos and fear, but now it provokes extreme feelings in the opposite direction: happiness, awe, etc.
