When one stands underneath the sculpture called Cloudgate (or “the Bean”), one experiences a dizzying, magical feeling of visual distortion and warped reality. I thought it would be really neat to try to capture that feeling through music. —Martha Horst
The structure of Cloudgate directly correlates to the structure of Kapoor’s sculpture of the same name.
The music forms a palindrome through the repetition of six distinct musical sections (A-B-C-D-E-F-F’-E’-D’-C’-B’-A’ ). Each section features symmetrical motives inspired by the object’s reflective qualities.
During the middle F section, the music mimicks the visual phenomena of the scultpure’s “omphalos” – a concave chamber that warps reflections – through the use of copious extended techniques. The structure of Cloudgate directly correlates to the structure of Kapoor’s sculpture of the same name.
Dr. Horst’s composition will be featured in the Chicago Composers’ Orchestra concert Chicago Stories on April 22, 2017 at St. James Cathedral, 65 East Huron, in Chicago. The concert begins at 7:30 pm, and will feature other premieres of compositions about the city of Chicago:
Water Bloom II by Kyong Mee Choi
Logan Square: Tough Neighborhood by Timothy Johnson
Océanie La Mer by Laura Schwendinger
With the Flow: Musings on the Chicago River by Elizabeth Start