The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres

by Dominique Carrier

“Right from the time of the Middle Ages, music, mathematics, and the different sciences were very connected,” says Alison Mackay, the creative force behind Tafelmusik’s The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres. Co-produced by The Banff Centre, The Galileo Project is a multi-media musical celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s development of the astronomical telescope and the 2009 International Year of Astronomy.

“In the case of Galileo, his father [Vincenzo Galilei] was a well-known lutenist and lute composer and I think he taught Galileo to play the lute,” says Mackay. “His father did some very famous experiments with the tensions of strings and how that affected pitch, and it is thought that Galileo was probably present at some of these experiments.”

The Banff Centre, where creativity meets innovation and artists mingle with mathematicians, proved to be the perfect location to develop the final elements of The Galileo Project. Toronto-based Tafelmusik, one of the world’s top baroque orchestras, travelled to Banff in January to collaborate with the Centre’s theatre, music, video, and audio departments. The Galileo Project set was constructed in Banff, the production’s staging, dramatization, and lighting were refined, and video for a Galileo outreach project was recorded in the Centre’s green-screen studio.The final production blends music from the 17th and 18th centuries, excerpts from Galileo’s diaries, and projected astronomical images of stars, galaxies, and planets, many of them from Alberta astrophotographer Alan Dyer and from the Hubble telescope. The Galileo Project premiered at the Centre in January, travelled to Toronto for a series of critically-acclaimed performances, and will tour nationally and internationally for the next three years.

Mackay, who plays bass in the Tafelmusik orchestra, began researching Galileo after receiving an email from Dr. John Percy, professor of astronomy at the University of Toronto. Percy, a long-time Tafelmusik subscriber, thought the subject of Galileo’s anniversary would inspire Mackay, who has been active in the planning of education and performance projects for the orchestra for many years.

Mackay instantly saw the potential to fuse baroque music and astronomy. “We’re placing our music in the context of the world of astronomers in baroque times, and it’s a wonderful fit and it completely coincides with Galileo’s use of the telescope,” she says.

Throughout her creative process, Mackay worked with Tafelmusik music director Jeanne Lamon to prepare the music, which was transcribed from original sources. In developing The Galileo Project, Mackay achieved a longstanding dream of creating a concert that merges set and lighting design, dramatic image projections, and musicians who perform while moving across the stage and into the audience.

To meet these unusual demands, the orchestra memorized the 21 works which make up The Galileo Project. “To memorize a whole orchestral program is unheard of,” says Mackay. “It’s extremely exciting, because we’re experimenting with images for the first time, and stage direction for the first time, which we’re able to do because we’re not tied to music stands. For us, I think the musical central core of it is the memorization. It’s very, very thrilling.”

Sarah Iley, The Banff Centre’s vice president of programming, agrees. “It is a remarkable project, and one the Centre was honoured to support. The Banff Centre is uniquely positioned to support multidisciplinary works such as this that bring together music, film imagery, and stagecraft. The fact that an Alberta audience was the first to see a program that will travel the globe makes it even better.”

Tafelmusik’s Jeanne Lamon and Alison Mackay were 2009 Banff Centre Fleck Fellows. in addition to the Centre’s contribution, The Galileo Project was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Tafelmusik plans to tour The Galileo Project to the United States, Mexico, and Asia, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Cervantino Festival in Mexico, in the 2009-2010 season.

Photos:

Tafelmusik rehearses below a projected image of the Carina Nebula. Photo: Don Lee

Music Director Jeanne Lamon and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in performance. Photo: Don Lee

Narrator Shaun Smyth in the Banff premiere performance of The Galileo Project. Photo: Don Lee