Callisto

Callisto or Jupiter IV is one of 66 moons of the planet Jupiter. Discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610, it is the third-largest moon in the Solar System. It is thought that Callisto’s surface has evolved primarily through violent impacts; its ancient surface is one of the most heavily cratered in the Solar System. The moon was named after Callisto a nymph in Greek mythology. Rumored that she was the daughter of the treacherous Lycaon, king of Arcadia.

This piece has two general parallel narratives, one following the harsh creation and development of the physical planet and one that follows the development of Callisto, the nymph, and her father Lycaon. It would be impossible to write music about one of Jupiter’s moons without referencing textural and rhythmic gestures from Gustav Holst’s Jupiter from The Planets, Op. 32.