Music of the Spheres
Plaster Relief
Tom Barnett & Pupils from Cranleigh School
2005

A commission by Cranleigh School to work on a project with pupils to create a plaster relief sculpture to cover an 8m long wall. The head of music at Cranleigh, Marcus Pashley, wanted to a relief that would put many of the key composers from 12th century onwards into a timeline in an imaginative way that would both reflect the varying styles of music and how these styles evolved into the diverse array of composers in the 20th century. In this sense this artwork serves two functions: as both a sculptural interpretation of a variety of music, and as an educational resource to give perspective to composers chronology.

Layout designed by Tom Barnett. 30 pupils were given specific sections relating to specific composers to create an appropriate relief. Twenty five composers are depicted. The left edge of each sphere corresponds with the date of the composers birth, the right edge that of their death. It is constructed with 41 sections, each made by a different pupil in the 4th form during sculpture classes during 2005. Pupils listened to and discussed the music of their chosen composer, made drawings in response, then transferred those drawings into clay relief moulds to pour plaster into.