In 2020 I had the slightly mad idea to compose music for each of the moons of Jupiter. I’m not sure I realised quite how many there are! (79 at last count!) I have composed music for 16 of them.

The pieces are not in any sense programmatic – in other words, I am not trying to capture the essence of what each moon is like, and I’m certainly not relating the pieces to the Greek and Roman mythology after which the moons are named. After all, most of the moons are named after the unfortunate maidens (and, in the case of Ganymede, the young man) whom Jupiter or Zeus took a fancy to and had his wicked way with. Seventy-nine pieces of music on that recurring theme might grow monotonous.

The Moons are presented in broadly the order in which they appear out from the planet Jupiter (apart from Valetudo, which is actually closer to Jupiter than Carme and Eirene. Valetude though means good health, and I felt that that would be a good place to end the album, with it’s positivity and forward vision. The Moons are also introduced and interspersed with short pieces representing Jupiter itself. Each of these short brass pieces are related to Holst’s music for Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, from the Planets Suite.

Here, then are the Moons of Jupiter. Who knows, maybe somewhere down the line I might compose a second album of pieces to represent the moons I have not got to on this album!

Also available on Spotify