Lux stellarum (2021)
(Concerto for flute and orchestra)

I have always wanted my music to invigorate the imagination of the audience. The titles I have given to my compositions also serve the same purpose; they should guide the listener’s train of thought onto certain paths and hopefully not seem like superficial illustrations. In any case, this flute concert is not programme music in its ordinary sense and I am not trying to describe cosmic processes or the movements of celestial bodies.

On the other hand, I also wish to push the thoughts of the audience towards new unfathomable dimensions. Once, I saw a midnight landscape bathing in starlight in Damaraland, Namibia; there was no moon, and the Milky Way glimmered across the sky like a glowing blue cloud. All the stars were brighter and bluer, not yellow like above my home island Hiiumaa – there is also no light pollution, but the atmospheric conditions are entirely different…

In these moments, the inability of man to actually grasp the scope of the universe, both in time and space, becomes particularly obvious. This emotion, the sense of solemn awe and wonder, and also a sort of eeriness is what Lux Stellarum is about.

The flute is like a lonely spiritual voyager moving around in his imagination between unfathomable temporal and spatial dimensions, trying to penetrate the borders of perception. Can we sense the movement of “dancing asteroids” and “floating galaxies”, and the lifespan of stars? Is the possibility of our existence in a timeframe similar to that of the stars one of our deepest and most desirable dreams?

All great civilisations have interpreted the starlit sky – even our veins are full of “stardust” and the notion that we are part of all this should increase our responsibility to this magnificent planet we are lucky to live on. It should make us humble in the profoundest sense of the word. These are the thoughts that accompanied me when writing this concert for the fantastic flutist Emmanuel Pahud.

Erkki-Sven Tüür
Translation: Pirjo Jonas