Toshanne Etezady

Forty-Eight Colors of the Full Moon is inspired by the work of Italian photographer Marcella Giulia Pace, who spent a decade photographing the full moon in various seasons, climates, and times of night. During the lockdown in 2020, she compiled some of her favorite images from this project and compiled them into a composite photograph in which four dozen different images of the moon are arranged in a rainbow-colored spiral; however, she notes that one doesn’t have to wait a decade to see the full moon go through chromatic variations -- it’s possible to see the moon change colors many times in one night.

In composing this piece, I was especially struck by the idea that the full moon – so distant from Earth and yet our closest neighbor, such a familiar constant in the sky – could present so many faces and colors: a striking red moon, for instance, hovering on the horizon at moonrise, a spotlight-white speck of a full moon directly overhead, or a bulbous purple moon floating serenely.

The traditional symbolic significance of the moon, as a symbol of mystery, intuition, and dreams, is also important in this piece. In this rhapsodic work for symphonic band, timbre and tone color are of particular importance, as well as creating a dream-like atmosphere to surround the listener, allowing space for dreams and imagination.

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