Nut Devours the Sun Full Score and Parts

Description

Nut Devours the Sun (a complete ballet)– Ca. 13′
for Piano, Violin, Cello, Flute, Clarinet
(Alternate version for piano solo may also be purchased, this was made to rehearse with dancers)
(A dancer’s score may also be purchased which has the musical score, stage directions, and dancers counts)

Premiered April 9th at Rodef Shalom’s Levy Hall with Confluence Ballet Company and Confluence Music Ensemble
Choreography by Grace Wellmon and Jayla Thacker

On the ceiling of the Temple of Hathor at Deandra, Egypt, there is an
expansive artwork depicting Nut, the Egyptian goddess of the night,
swallowing an aging sun and giving birth to a new radiant sun. This
symbol of rebirth in ancient times would have been acted out in a
drama, the ballet is a restaging of this ancient ritual. The symbols
brought to life in this work are at least 4,000 years old, yet they remain
potent and powerful ways of understanding the nature and character of
the seemingly impersonal forces of nature that act on all of us.

I. The Sun
II. Nut Devours the Sun
III. Nut’s Dream

Musically this work is built from cycles of repeated phrases. Initially it begins with a standard ballet adagio in the traditional form, as the work progresses the phrase lengths remain the same but the inner groupings of the meter are divided differently as the drama progesses and the sun is disfigured. When the new sun emerges the adagio returns with new life. During Nut’s Dream , both the Choreography and the music become improvised. There is a composed musical strcture that the improvisation sits upon, however the “dream” part is up to the spontaneous discretation of the improvisers in the performance.