Orchestrating the Skies

Twilight is holding in the clouds scattered across the domed ceiling of the recently renovated Samuel Oschin Planetarium as about 150 people leave behind the clear windy day outside Griffith Observatory to be ushered into the theater’s impending night.

The crowd has come to experience the new 8.5 million dollar planetarium show “Centered in the Universe” which, along with a new dome, star projector, digital laser projectors, seats and lights, features original music composed by Emmy Award-winning composer and La Crescenta resident Scott Liggett.

“A former client of ours, Ann Hassett, had just been hired as the executive producer for the Samuel Oschin Planetarium show ‘Centered in the Universe,’” said Liggett who is a composer, producer and vice president of the Alan Ett Music Group. “She contacted our company — Alan Ett Music Group — and arranged for the key observatory people to come to our facilities for an initial tour and meeting.”

In addition to Hassett, that group included Observatory Director Dr. Ed Krupp, Executive Director of Friends Of The Observatory (FOTO), Camille Lombardo and the show’s director-writer-animator Don Dixon. During the early meetings between the observatory team and Liggett and his composing partners William Ashford and Alan Ett, the specifics outlining the score’s role in the show began to solidify.

“Certain parameters that would affect the planetarium music were discussed at our first meetings, i.e. there would be a live narrator and the story would be the most important element with emphasis on history and science. The audience should leave with a feeling of awe and wonder,” Liggett said. “The music must be understated, yet supportive then come to full throttle at special moments.”

In addition to the parameters the observatory team set, the musical score also had to synchronize with the show’s laser 3-D animation. After having gathered the necessary information from the observatory team, Liggett began to listen to Debussy and Ravel, impressionistic classical music, to spur on his creative process in that direction.

“I do my writing in the very early morning hours usually at the piano,” said Liggett. “Sometimes I hear the music in my head, sometimes I sing it to myself and other times I just start playing on the piano. What comes out is either a melody, a chord sequence, a rhythmic pulse, an orchestration technique, a motif, etcetera.”

Liggett studied classical and popular music at the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. After playing with The Stuart Little Band, a popular opening act band for big name groups that would come through San Francisco, Liggett moved in 1973 to Lake Tahoe to become a staff musician for the casino orchestras, fulfilling his childhood dream to play in a big band. He performed with legendary greats like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, The Carpenters, Shirley McClaine and The Smothers Brothers.

It was during this time in Lake Tahoe that Liggett formed his own live-stage production company and tried his hand at writing and producing music. In 1979, Liggett returned to Hollywood as a composer/producer, eventually co-founding the Alan Ett Music Group with Alan Ett in 1991.

Liggett composes primarily for television ranging from his work with Robert Goulet on ESPN’s NCAA Men’s College Basketball Championship campaign in 1996 (which won him an Emmy) to the latest adventured-themed Bratz commercials.

“Producing music for television is done quickly. You have one or two people that are involved in the approval process and things go fairly smoothly,” said Liggett on the difference between composing for T.V. and the planetarium show. “We were involved with ‘Centered in the Universe’ for well over a year. Many, many changes were done with the script and animation sequences, so we would start composing in one direction, and then have to go in another. I was not only involved with composing, but was the music producer for the recording of the orchestra, mixing and installing the music into the planetarium’s sound system. It was very time consuming.”

Guests will lean back in their seats as they are dazzled by the planetarium show which starts with the engaging narration of a live actress who begins the planetarium journey with the idea that humankind tells stories about the sky to understand our place in the universe.

Twilight holds until the actress ends her introduction and then the light recedes from the clouds overhead, the sunset is permitted to play-out and the music begins to work its way up into the forefront of consciousness, and with the music it is as if this were the first time that sunlight has drained from the sky; the first time there has ever been stars.