20210103 MARE CRISIUM, SEA OF CRISES 1
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This will be the first of a series of short posts relating to the
lunar crater, Crisium. There is a great deal of interesting
information scattered across a number of sources. My goal is to
pull this information together and eventually create a larger
document accounting for the historical and cultural, as well as
physical science dimensions of our namesake. In this way, I hope
to contribute to the cultural riches of The Soviet.
As can be seen from the title, Mare Crisium is Latin for Sea of
Crises. The crater is in the north east quadrant of the moon as
viewed from earth. The mare is only one of 22 whose name has been
official accepted. One of its easily visible characteristics is
its separation from the plethora of other mares. Crisium stands
alone.
It is also known as Caspian after the Caspian Sea on earth as they
seemingly share a similar location if considered from a European
orientation of the globe. However, Mare Crisium is the accepted
"modern" nomenclature. It is also distinguished from many other
mares by not having been named after a Renaissance astronomer.
One characteristic of the crater which was not detectable until
more recent times was its mass concentration. Perhaps due to the
composition of the astroid that created the crater a few billion
years ago, gravitation forces associated with this mare are
formidable. In fact, unware space probes are at risk of crashing
in its vicinity. This actually occurred to an unmanned Russian
craft during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
It would be interesting for future historians to investigate
whether this is what indeed influenced the naming of our colony.
In the normal course of events, the loss of a probe might not seem
consequential. However, its demise during a mission in which
astronauts from the United States landed and walked on the moon no
doubt further poured salt into old wounds. The crater was, indeed,
the source of a tangible crisis.
The crater has also inspired at least one musical cultural
expression. John Richard Campanelli submitted an orchestral
arrangement as his doctoral thesis at the University of Michigan
in 1983. The following statement is was provided as an abstract
for the thesis' inclusion in the repository:
-->> MARE CRISIUM (Sea of Crises), written between September, 1982
and March, 1983, is an extended one-movement work for orchestra.
It is scored for winds in threes (with oboe 3 doubling English
Horn, clarinet 3 doubling bass clarinet, and contra-bassoon), four
horns, three trumpets, two trombones, tuba, percussion, two harps,
celesta, and standard strings. The title of the work is intended
to inform the listener in an abstract rather than a programmatic
sense. Mare Crisium is one of the seas of the moon, the majority
of which were rather fancifully named by Renaissance astronomers.
The language of the piece utilizes extended tertian triads as
building blocks, with the interval of the third being important
both melodically and as a basis for root movement. From an
orchestrational and gestural standpoint, the work is inspired by
the orchestral music of Claude Debussy, the early impressionistic
works of Igor Stravinsky, and the pre-serial music of Arnold
Schoenberg. Reference to their music in MARE CRISIUM is in the
nature of an hommage. The period from which these works issue,
i.e., ca. 1905 to 1913, is the one that I consider the golden age
of the orchestra, in which the music conceived for the instrument
of the orchestra most admirably suited its capabilities. MARE
CRISIUM is, from this stylistic point of view, something of a look
backward; however, I believe that the language of the piece works
for our own time. <<--
In order to benefit personally and to enhance their commitment to
The Soviet, Sundogs can listen to an excellent rendition of the
orchestration at the following YouTube address:
https://youtu.be/XANqcLOLlS0
Again, as Bruce Sterling's <<Schismatrix>> was first published in
1985, literary scholars will need to explore whether or not
Campanelli's work influenced the author of our Urtext.
