To represent melodically the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system and other concepts related to its discovery, I generated different banks of melodic material that combine the rhythmic units linked to each planet with their correspondent pitches in the music scales or in the chords. The banks are the result of joining seven individual lines, each with the specific material of a planet. They start with a full alignment of the 7 planets, generating a cycle of hundreds of thousands of bars until the next full alignment (Figure 11). The use of this technique recreates melodically the undulatory shape of the TRAPPIST-1 transits on the data plots[20]. This shape is the result of the cyclical repetition of notes associated with the shorter rhythmic units, which create a “bottom” line from which the other notes take off and come back.
In The Flowering Desert there are two main banks I generate melodic material from: the first (Figure 11) combines the rhythmic units based on distances (Table 5) with the music scales based on distances (Figure 3), and the second combines the rhythmic units based on rotations (Table 3) with the music scales based on distances (Figure 3). Each of these two banks has two different versions: one using the ascending music scale, and the second as its inversion, using the descending scale (Figure 3). The different resultant melodic shapes from these banks are useful to define characters in the piece. This can be seen, for example, in the character of Pantele in Scene 1, when her “Self” and “Shadow”[21] personalities are presented. The “Self” uses the material created using the descending scale, which sits in a higher register and is therefore brighter for the voice (Figure 12). The “Shadow” uses the material created using the ascending scale, which sits in a lower register and is darker for the voice (Figure 13).
To choose melodic fragments from these banks, and due to the impossibility of going through all the generated material[22], I decided to use TRAPPIST-1 data. To detach myself from a personal arbitrary decision, I asked Dr Amaury Triaud to find a series of numbers specific to each planet or events related to the discovery of TRAPPIST-1 that I could use to determine where to get material from in the banks[23]. Each of those numbers marks the bar number in the banks to draw the melodic material from. Then, the melodic material will be associated with the specific planet or concept linked to the numbers Dr Triaud provided. Figures 12, 13, and 14 show, for example, melodic material associated with the character Pantele[24]. This procedure, drawing on a certain indeterminacy and chance[25] as a composition technique, recalls the use of the I Ching by John Cage to determine musical parameters in Music for Changes (1951) and Xenakis’ stochastic music[26], which was informed by scientific data and processes[27].
