About the Work
"…
The doll laughed,
And the bear laughed even more,
Why chase away the darkness
When he's such a good boy?
…"
— from HaBuba Zehava by The High Windows
On its surface, Meteors follows the trajectory of an asteroid. Far from depicting destruction, though, we follow the meteor like starry-eyed children — solar winds brushing against us through chromatic woodwinds and overlapping string glissandi, the asteroid belt as a primitive rhythmic drive from percussion and low bass. At the moment of impact, time seems to last an infinity: the orchestra grinds to a halt, the conductor counting smaller and smaller subdivisions of the beat, like quantum particles breaking apart. Slowly, the stupor lifts — and the ending feels like a curtain just opening, preparing us to be swept into the world newly revealed.
A Trilogy in Development
Meteors is the prelude to an evening-length orchestral trilogy exploring creation myths and humanity's relationship to the forces that shaped us — water, earth, sky; flood, forest, cosmos. Across the three chapters, the music rises from earth toward heavens, becoming ever more ethereal yet no less alive.
The prelude — Meteors
Premiered in April 2026 at Manhattan School of Music. Meteors traces the trajectory of an asteroid, not as destruction but through the eyes of starry-eyed children: solar winds in chromatic woodwinds, the asteroid belt as a primitive rhythmic drive, and finally the moment of impact, where time itself fractures into smaller and smaller subdivisions before opening onto a vast, newly revealed world. The prelude ends like a curtain rising.
Chapter I — Anchor on Feather Mountain
Enters that world through the Flood. Storms, oceans, and an enchanted mountain rising from the waves: a world washed clean, breathing again. The opening glissandi of Meteors — first heard as solar wind — return here as ocean current, the same gesture transfigured by its new context. Calamity becomes genesis. Composed in 2025; an excerpt, Mountain Valley, premiered for piano in April 2026.
Chapter II
Turns from water to the living world. It draws on world-tree mythologies — Yggdrasil, the Mayan ceiba, the cosmic ash — that imagine a single living organism at the center of the universe, branches in the heavens, roots in the underworld. The orchestra becomes a breathing ecosystem: animals, insects, and birds orbiting a hidden trunk that occasionally reveals itself. Day cycles into night. The migrating glissando, having traveled through solar wind and ocean current, now becomes wind through branches. In development.
Chapter III
An ecstatic climb through mythic heavens; an ode to energy, joy, and cosmic wonder. The arc that began with starry-eyed children watching a meteor ends among the stars themselves.
The trilogy is conceived as a single work rather than three separate pieces. Recurring melodic cells, harmonic textures, and gestures migrate across the chapters, taking on new characters as their context shifts. The lush string glissandi and harmonies that open Meteors return throughout the trilogy in expanded, reimagined forms — a single thread of musical material that gains new meaning each time it reappears.
Beyond the score, the trilogy is being developed as an evening-length performance work integrating dance, film, and theatrical staging — a multidisciplinary expansion of the orchestral architecture into something that lives across multiple art forms simultaneously.
Get Involved
The trilogy is in active development. I'm in conversation with collaborators in dance, film, and theater, and seeking presenting partners, co-commissioners, and creative collaborators for the larger work.
To learn more or get involved, contact: music@yuvalmedina.com
Follow the project: @yuvalcomposer on Instagram · YouTube
