The sun is a star is a programmatic piece loosely based on the observations of the natural world by the protagonist through a day, from dawn to sunrise, midday to sunset, and dusk to night. The sun is portrayed here as a character that is omnipresent throughout the piece, even in its absence at the very beginning and the very end. While there are no concrete events that are depicted by the music in the fashion of a story, the music suggests an abstract timeline with each section symbolically representing different times of the day. This narrative is the main guiding force during the compositional process and governs the musical decisions throughout the piece. With such a narrative in mind, a lot of the materials in the piece appear in a few distinctive leitmotifs, representing the sun, wind, light, stars etc., and these motifs help shape the narrative while keeping the music coherent motivically.

 

The piece begins with a depiction of a starfield in the night sky, with the imagery of the twinkling stars and gentle breeze portrayed in the strings. The English Horn with the ‘sun motif’ marks the gradual ascent of the sun, thickening the texture gradually until the first climax at m. 66. As the sun appears in full, the previously heard ‘sun motif’ is now transformed into the glorious main theme (‘sun theme’) of the movement. The sun continues to rise, and when it ascends above the horizon it fills up the natural landscape with light, the ‘light motif’ appears in the form of an overtone chord. At around the midpoint of the piece, the music is reduced back to a thin and quiet texture which mirrors the very beginning of the piece. I imagine this as a different kind of tranquillity, as the shimmering light from the midday sun brings about a sense of stillness and peace. This lasts for a while, until the sun begins to descend, bringing back the vibrant colours of the beginning, culminating in a contrapuntal section with themes derived from the ‘sun motif’. The sun begins to set as the ‘sun theme’ is presented again in a warmer tone, with plenty of descending scales representing the descent of the sun. Eventually, the sun fades with the last glimpse of light dissipating away peacefully and nostalgically.