UCLA

This dissertation investigates music composition in dialogue with the cosmos, using the total solar eclipse of April 8th, 2024 as both the scientific inspiration and narrative framework for an original orchestral work. Its central creative project, Symphony of the Sun—a thirty-two-minute tone-poem triptych—traces the eclipse across three movements. The accompanying scholarly treatise situates this work within a broader lineage by examining Gustav Holst and Paul Hindemith, composers who each turned to the solar system as inspiration. In analyzing their approaches through the lens of science and human-centered narratives, I articulate how my own symphonic writing extends, adapts, and diverges from these models. The final chapter reflects on my aesthetic and compositional strategies through which the April 8th eclipse is rendered in musical form in Symphony of the Sun.