Steven Calver - Luminae (world premiere)

Refraction is the bending of light through a substance. Different substances bend light at different angles. Each colour has a different wavelength, and bends at a different angle. This is the same effect that produces rainbows in the atmosphere. Light changes speed as it moves from one medium to another (for example, from air into the glass of a prism). This speed change causes the light to be refracted and to enter the new medium at a different angle (Huygens principle). The degree of bending of the light's path depends on the angle that the incident beam of light makes with the surface, and on the ratio between the refractive indices of the two media (Snell's law). 'There are two kinds of light - the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures.' James Thurber 'Colour is all. Colour is everything, colour is vibration like music; everything is vibration.' Marc Chagall ©Steven Calver About the composer Steven Calver Steven Calver was born in Suffolk, started playing the cello at the age of eleven and started composing at the age of thirteen after hearing Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. He completed his Bmus in 2005 and MusM in 2006, both at the University of Manchester. His music has been performed by various artists and ensembles, including Ensemble 10/10, Quatour Danel, Keith McAlister, and members of the BBC Philharmonic. Steven is currently studying towards his PhD , supervised by Professor Philip Grange. so that each sound has an individual 'lifetime' (analogous to that of us human beings). The instrumentation of the ensemble version is due to the development of the musical material: from full, lively colourful to merely pale and single-note and lonely instrumentation.