In his 1982 composition Sun for mixed choir, R. Murray Schafer addresses the sun’s journey across the sky from multiple perspectives, portraying it in a unique way inspired by the geographical aspects of this process. The text used by the composer consists solely of the word ‘sun’, presented in nearly forty different languages representing all continents and cultural regions. The work’s distinctive programmatic nature and clear illustrative qualities provide a basis for contemplating how meaning is conveyed through music. The analysis relies on conventional methods focused on the work’s form and structure, while also referring to musical semiotics, and in particular to the category of semantic isotopy as defined by E. Tarasti. The search for musical signs that make up the ‘sound of the sun’ centres on uncovering the composer’s strategy for depicting the sun’s path across the sky through musical means.
