To listen while following along with the score, click here: ANCIENT ANOMALIES, No. 4: Luna Cava, Op. 187 │ Brass Quintet │ Dr. Daniel Thrower - YouTube

This composition was composed to be included in a collection of “Ancient Anomalies,” although this piece itself is an anomaly to the collection itself in two ways. First, the other ancient anomalies are earthbound; and, although conspiracies float around all the others, the “hollow moon” theory is as fringe as they come. Second, all the other compositions in the collection arose from early compositional sketches, some over two decades old—ancient anomalies to my own life, if you will—but this one developed from a more current sketch and took less than a year of spotty work to complete.

I don’t necessarily subscribe to the hollow moon theory, but it is fantastic fodder for imaginational explorations! What if…?

The piece is atonal in nature, with no key signature. The harmonic clusters that formulate the ominous opening phrases are comprised—with ornamental exceptions—of equidistant intervals between the parts. Some are far more strident than others, and the dynamic and (dare I say) melodic gestures play intimately with the inner workings of the organized clusters. The second motivic gesture is the repetitive rapid-fire concert B-flat that liaises between the floating clusters, and the fiery technical sixteenth-note motifs that arise later. This all hints toward my mental images of fantastic and complex inner workings of a theoretically hollow moon, inhabited as a type of space station that monitors the Earth and its rather violent tribal inhabitants. A movie should be made from such elaborations!