The last scene of The Flowering Desert revolves around the collision of the exocomet Xoe into Pantele in order to make the planet habitable. This engages with the theories that stress the importance of comets in the development of life. They are rich in organic materials, which, in the event of a collision, can recombine into more complex molecules, such as amino acids, proteins, or sugars (Kaiser et al., 2013). The scene therefore showcases the final approach of Xoe towards Pantele, speeding up propelled by the burning of its material caused by passing nearby the star[67]. This is represented musically as a process of a constant acceleration from the beginning of the scene until the cataclysmic event. This process is supported with four sung interventions of the Mother Star, each shorter than the previous one, depicting the stellar propulsion of the comet towards the planet. The main acceleration process in this scene is applied to the melodic material associated with Xoe, as the body that accelerates towards Pantele. The tempo change sequence is as follows:
Example #20
Use of a constant acceleration process to inform the composition of Scene 4, representing the approach of the comet Xoe towards Pantele and their collision. Xoe’s melodic material, which is present throughout the acceleration process, is marked in blue in the score. The Mother Star interventions are marked in yellow in the score.