Gaia explores and juxtaposes ideas involving humanity's relationship with technology, nature, and itself. The piece reflects the biggest fallacy of man: the belief that we are in any sense eternal, and how this fallacy will ultimately cause humanity’s self-undoing. 

Gaia has four sections representing the timeline of Earth. The piece begins with a slow, peaceful section that represents the birth/growth of nature. This section ends with a grand crescendo that leads to the antiquated, second section representing the dawn of humanity. Like humans, the second section gradually develops into the third technical section representing the creation and failure of technology. Finally, the piece ends with a solemn coda, signifying nature and earth healing and prevailing through the chaos.

Commission for Clarinet Quartet Consortium
Performers: Miranda Thomas, Jake Daniel, Kayla Stone, Ian Fonseca

Gaia - Willie Cornish Jr.

The graphic above is a visualization of global wind patterns; massive amounts of weather data are fed into a supercomputer that then produces a live (or pseudo-live) “wind map.” The swirls and swoops are color-coded: areas of blue and green are relatively calm, while red and purple usually imply devastating conditions in a tropical system. There is something particularly poetic about seeing our atmosphere on such a macro scale; the same colors converted from numerical data also suggest Van Gogh-esque brushstrokes. The confluence of the empirical and the aesthetic in the “wind map” has proved wildly inspiring for the composition of this piece.

The Juilliard Orchestra (reading)
Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor

Wind Map (2018): for orchestra

Composer, Arranger, and music lover.
Furman University '22
University of Michigan '24
-To view/purchase sheet music or to know more, visit: www.williecornishjr.com

Gaia - Willie Cornish Jr.

Willie Cornish Jr.

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