Mike Roylance, Principal Tuba with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will give the Japanese premiere of Stellae errantes in Tokyo on November 6th, 2017. The work was commissioned by and dedicated to him.

 

 

 

 

 

Stellae errantes (Wandering Stars) is inspired by Cicero’s (106-43 BC) work De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods), written in 45BC. In the second book of this philosophical dialogue, the Roman orator and philosopher writes about the incorrectly named Stellae errantes. These five wandering stars, described as “fiery heat and translucent throughout” are, according to Cicero, “formed from the most mobile and the purest part of the aether (upper atmosphere)”. They are known today as planets.

I. Phaenon (The Shiner)

II. Phaethon (The Blazing)

III. Pyroeis (The Fiery)

IV. Stilbon (The Gleaming)

V. Phosphoros–Hesperos