Orbits is a composition based on planetary motion within our solar system. The piece centers around the “Orrery Harp” (a hand made autonomous electroacoustic stringed instrument). The rhythm of the piece is determined by each planet’s period of orbit around the sun. One earth day is scaled to one-tenth of a second. Earth’s yearly cycle becomes accelerated to 36.524 seconds, while each other planet is scaled accordingly. As a planet completes its yearly orbit it plays a note on the Orrery Harp along with a piece of the rhythm section.
The composition begins with the mathematical alignment of all planetary bodies and plays continuously for the duration of the installation. If the piece were allowed to play without interruption, it would take over a quadrillion years (1,224,896,828,858,194.6 years) before the pattern would repeat itself. This is even longer than our universe has been in existence.
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