32. Pavo (Peacock)

 Pavo

Peacock

“Fishes” — The Law of the Unity and Struggle Between Opposites

Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744

　NGC 6744, resembling the feathers of a peacock, is a spiral galaxy larger than our Milky Way. The stars in its central region are old, while its bluish and pinkish spiral arms are home to young stars. It has a diameter of 175,000 light-years and lies 30 million light-years from Earth.

Globular Star Cluster NGC 6752

　NGC 6752 is the third-brightest globular cluster in the night sky and contains more than 100,000 stars. It has a diameter of 100 light-years and lies 13,000 light-years from Earth.

Giant Galaxy NGC 6872

　NGC 6872 is a giant barred spiral galaxy, four to five times the size of the Milky Way, with an unusual shape caused by its interaction with a smaller galaxy. It stretches 522,000 light-years from end to end and lies 212 million light-years from Earth.

　Sisask's image for Pavo is “The Law of the Unity and Struggle of Opposites.”

　This image brought two things to mind: “interacting galaxies” and “globular clusters”.

　 “Interacting galaxies” are galaxies that have become distorted through interactions with one another. Galaxies may be drawn towards one another by gravity, become severely distorted through collisions, or, in some cases, a smaller galaxy may be swallowed by a larger one. Curiously, however, direct collisions between the stars within these galaxies are rare. Instead, the galaxies may eventually pass through each other, or their gas and dust may mix as they merge, forming a single larger galaxy.
　A “globular cluster” is a spherical collection of 100,000 to one million stars held together by gravity, concentrated within a region roughly 10 light-years across. How these clusters form is not yet fully understood. While galaxies are influenced by the gravity of dark matter and other galaxies, globular clusters maintain their shape through the mutual gravitational attraction of their own stars.

　Sisask’s image of “The Law of the Unity and Struggle of Opposites” for Pavo may have been inspired by the effects of gravity and phenomena such as collisions, passages (or near misses), and mergers in the universe, as illustrated by NGC 6872, a galaxy whose shape is altered by interactions with another galaxy, and NGC 6752, a globular cluster that maintains its shape through its own gravity.

　The music, too, allows us to sense the various phenomena taking place in the universe. The gradual depression of the pedal (marked “press step by step” in the score), which causes the sounds to blend together, brings to mind an interacting galaxy, with cosmic dust and gas weaving their way between the stars and spreading throughout it. Meanwhile, the sharp accents and tone clusters played by striking several keys with the palm of the hand (a special playing technique) seem to depict scenes of violent collisions.

　In fact, the piece Pavo has another subtitle, “Fishes”. According to a note in the score, Fishes refers to “accidental mistakes in music”, and dissonant notes that sound almost like wrong notes are marked with an asterisk (＊) in the handwritten score. 

　Ten Fishes are scattered throughout the piece, but if these are not simply mistakes, what might they mean?  This is purely my own speculation, but perhaps they represent unpredictable moments when things may collide or narrowly miss one another, like collisions and near misses in the universe. 

　Another thing that comes to mind is Aboriginal dot painting. Particularly towards the end of the piece, the rapid leaps of notes darting in all directions remind me of countless tiny dots scattered across a painting, like stars scattered throughout the night sky. Listeners may find themselves unable to tell whether the notes are correct or simply wrong notes.
　In Aboriginal dot paintings, stories and worldviews are expressed through countless dots and patterns. The dot paintings of Aboriginal peoples, who traditionally had no writing system, may appear to take on different forms depending on the viewer’s imagination. Perhaps even the patterns on a peacock’s feathers could be seen as fish — “Fishes”. Might these paintings convey messages that go beyond what can be expressed in writing?

　The final note of Pavo would ideally be F♯, the note of resolution, rather than G, which is marked as a “Fish”. Sisask writes ossia (meaning “or alternatively”) in the score, allowing the performer to choose either note. However, I believe that humanity must recognise many of its mistakes before we can confidently choose F♯, the note of “resolution (unity)”. There are laws that all living things must observe, and the harmonious workings of the universe teach us what they are. Yet perhaps we cannot always perceive the true nature of things from how they appear (or sound) at a single moment.