Duration: 7'
Commissioned by and dedicateed to Stuart Gerber and the Georgia State University Percussion Ensemble
This composition is dedicated to my colleague Start Gerber, Coordinator of Percussion at the Georgia State University School of Music who commissioned it for the GSU Percussion Ensemble. Despite its somewhat evocative title, the piece is generally abstract in nature with no specific program attached to it. I chose the title because I began composing the work near the perihelion of the Earth in 2026. Perihelion refers to the point at which the orbit of a planet, comet, or other body in the solar system is closest to the Sun. The term is derived from the Greek peri (“near”) and helios (“sun”). The Earth reaches its perihelion in early January, when it is approximately 147 million kilometers from the Sun. Somewhat counterintuitively, this falls in the middle of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, which demonstrates that Earth’s seasons are driven by axial tilt, not distance from the Sun. Musically, the piece is energetic throughout with a great deal of counterpoint as might be expected given its title. The furious tempo and torrential flow of notes give way briefly to a middle section that is slightly slower and features a quirky canon in a 7/8 before resuming a relentless drive to the finish. The music also contains a humble homage to Steve Reich’s seminal work Music for 18 Musicians which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2026, the year which also saw the celebration of composer’s 90th birthday.