Numbers

Simon Rackham

(to be released on 20th May) ‘Ten-Four’ was composed for solo piano in March 2026 and is entirely in ten four time, but with the two pieces dividing the beats differently. Pt. 1 is in D major, and Pt. 2 is in D minor Read more

(to be released on 20th May) ‘Ten-Four’ was composed for solo piano in March 2026 and is entirely in ten four time, but with the two pieces dividing the beats differently. Pt. 1 is in D major, and Pt. 2 is in D minor (with G flat throughout). ‘Eight Minutes and Twenty Seconds’ is for solo piano. The title comes from the average amount of time it takes light to travel from the Sun to Earth. The piece lasts as long as it would take a photon from the Sun to reach the Earth. ‘Three Point Eight Centimetres’ is for solo piano. The title refers to the distance the Moon moves away from Earth each year. ‘Two and a Half Billion Seconds’ is composed for piano three hands. Though the piece contains more dissonance it is still diatonic (as all the other pieces) and is written in G Major. The phrase two and a half billion seconds appears in Samuel Beckett's 1979 play, ‘A Piece of Monologue,’ where the speaker suggests how long a lifetime is, with two and a half billion seconds equating to roughly 80 years, or 28,935 days. ‘Minus Two Hundred and Seventy-Three Point One Five’ is for solo piano. -273.15 °C is Absolute zero, the lowest theoretically possible temperature. ‘K2-18b’ is for piano three hands. K2-18b an exoplanet 124 light-years away from Earth considered to be the most likely (so far discovered) to sustain life. All the music except ‘Ten-Four’ was composed in April 2026.

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    K2-18b 11:06
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