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  Numinous The Music of Joseph C. Phillips Jr.

7: 2006
Numinous at 25

7. 2006
#numinous25
#numinousmusic25

The year 2006 was a busy year of music. On January 24, was the Pulse Soloists’ concert at The Old Stone House in Brooklyn, where each composer wrote for a particular member of the ensemble. My piece, "The Lady Who Sailed the Soul" was written for violinist Christian Howes and Lis Rubard on horn and was inspired by watching kites one summer afternoon in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The soaringness and elegance of motion brought my thoughts to the concept of solar sailing. Extremely large and thin membrane mirrors that reflect starlight in order to “push” a spacecraft through the cosmos, solar sails first came into popular consciousness with the 1960 novelette, "The Lady Who Sailed The Soul" by Cordwainer Smith; my imagination was intrigued by the beautiful and elegant “image of the great sails, tissue-metal wings with which the bodies of people finally fluttered out among the stars.” Later that year I used “The Lady Who Sailed The Soul” as the first movement of a three-movement violin concerto for Christian and 25 musicians of Numinous. Although we did read through the concerto I wrote, I did not like what I heard. So while I kept “The Lady Who Sailed The Soul” as it’s own piece, I took all of my good musical ideas from the 2nd and 3rd movements of the now scrapped violin concerto and, over the years, incorporated them in various compositions for Numinous. 

In early June, at two shows (June 8 at the old Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg and the other June 11 at St. Peter's Church in Manhattan), Pulse debuted the second edition of our project The Eloquent Light, music inspired by photography (the first was in 2005) at two shows (we were even reviewed!). My piece "Race," like John Adams' “Short Ride in a Fast Machine” or Micheal Torke's “Javelin” or “Run,” is a portrait of motion—a joyous linear progression of movement to the end, much like a runner in an actual race. We also performed The Eloquent Light  2 in another show December 17 at the old Bowery Poetry Club. The next year I would orchestrate the piece for Numinous and subsequently performed it a few times over the years. 

And later in June on the 22nd, Numinous performed Vipassana again, the first time since its premiere in 2005. 

#josephcphillipsjr #numinous #numinousmusic @numinousmusic #mixedmusic #newmusic #theladywhosailedthesoul #solarsailing #solarsail #solarsails #theeloquentlight 

🎵:  "The Lady Who Sailed the Soul" by Joseph C Phillips Jr, 
The Soloists' Concert
performed live at The Old Stone House, Brooklyn, New York, January 24, 2006

Chris Howes, violin soloist; Lis Rubard, horn soloist

Ben Kono, Dan Willis, Mike Christianson, Tim Collins, Sebastian Noelle, Sarah Bernstein, Frank Foerster, John Popham,  Joseph C Phillips Jr, conductor

© 2006 Numen Music/BMI All Rights Reserved


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Thanks and credit to all the original photos on this website to: David Andrako, Concrete Temple Theatre, Marcy Begian, Mark Elzey, Ed Lefkowicz, Donald Martinez, Kimberly McCollum, Geoff Ogle, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., Daniel Wolf-courtesy of Roulette, Andrew Robertson, Viscena Photography, Jennifer Kang, Carolyn Wolf, Mark Elzey, Karen Wise, Numinosito. The Numinous Changing Same album design artwork by DM Stith. The Numinous The Grey Land album design and artwork by Brock Lefferts. Contact for photo credit and information on specific images.