Terry Riley Interview: Sun Rings at Kings Place
Feature
Sixty years on since his seminal work, ‘In C’, Terry Riley has earned a firm place in the collective of legendary composers of our time. Ahead of the first London performance of Sun Rings in over 20 years, he talks exclusively to Kings Place about the inspiration and process behind the composition of this masterful work, commissioned by NASA via Kronos Quartet.
‘'I decided to put the choir in to connect Earth with space... We're always going to be humans when we're out there... behaving like humans, making decisions like humans.'’
A ten-part suite, utilising audio recordings of NASA’s Voyager I & II (on mission since 1977), Sun Rings is an evocative journey from Earth to the cosmos and back again with the final movement, ‘One Earth, One People, One Love’.
‘'Through our art, we try to figure out what our relationship is to this big cosmic joke.'’
With his creative thoughts from an inspirational trip to Cape Kennedy in Summer 2001 soon interrupted by 9/11, Riley wanted his work ‘to have one message about how we human beings have to grow before we take our culture out into space.’ Through this prism, Sun Rings transcends mere musical exploration questioning humanity’s place in the universe as we venture beyond our world, and offering a profound message about growth and unity.
‘'Composers were starting to form their own groups and play their own music... this is more like a laboratory for composers.'’
As well as launching Kings Place’s year-long Earth Unwrapped series, the performance of Sun Rings by Sacconi Quartet and Festival Voices on Thu 16 Jan is also part of our celebrations of Riley’s 90th birthday.
© Alejandro Tamagno