Score: 47 Tucanae
For piano duet (4 hands) and sound file (CD) [2008]
Duration: c. 1½ mins.
Commissioned by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music
Notes:
47 Tucanae is the second largest globular cluster in the Milky Way and is located in the constellation of Tucana. Amongst its 15,000 densely packed stars exist at least 20 millisecond pulsars which are rapidly rotating neutron stars (the end-product of a star that collapses when it has used up all its nuclear fuel). These highly magnetised neutron stars spin on their axes between 120 and 500 times a second, generating beams of radiation that are detected on Earth as pulses in the same manner as light is emitted from a lighthouse. The sounds on this track are a simulation of what one might ideally hear within this globular cluster of stars, and have been created by Michael Kramer and Andrew Lyne at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, University of Manchester.
47 Tucanae was commissioned by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music as part of the Spectrum for piano duets book. The premiere was given by student performers at the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Royal College of Music, London as part of the Spectrum launch on the 27th October 2012.
© Patrick Nunn 2008
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