Outer Space
with Cameron Johnston - Projectionist
Where the Blue Sky Turns
composed by Marcus Carline
conducted by Saunder Choi
soloists: Katelyn Dietz, Kion Heidari
speakers: Marcus Carline, David Rentz
conducted by Saunder Choi
soloists: Katelyn Dietz, Kion Heidari
speakers: Marcus Carline, David Rentz
Up here where the blue sky turns to black
To Dick, Mike, Judy, El, and Ron
Christa and Greg
Dear friends, we've resumed the journey that we promised to continue.
Dear friends, your loss means we can confidently begin again.
Dear friends, your dream and your spirit is in our hearts.
– Commander Frederick Hauck
Commander Hauck spoke these words up in space in 1988, on the space flight following the Jan 28th,1986 Challenger Disaster. The Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into it's flight due to an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster failing at liftoff.
Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik lost their lives in the explosion. But where the first half of this story tells of tragedy, the second half speaks to hope.
– Marcus Carline
To Dick, Mike, Judy, El, and Ron
Christa and Greg
Dear friends, we've resumed the journey that we promised to continue.
Dear friends, your loss means we can confidently begin again.
Dear friends, your dream and your spirit is in our hearts.
– Commander Frederick Hauck
Commander Hauck spoke these words up in space in 1988, on the space flight following the Jan 28th,1986 Challenger Disaster. The Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into it's flight due to an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster failing at liftoff.
Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, and Judith Resnik lost their lives in the explosion. But where the first half of this story tells of tragedy, the second half speaks to hope.
– Marcus Carline
Sliding Into Stardust
composed by Fahad Siadat
conducted by Richard An
conducted by Richard An
I wrote Sliding into Stardust as part of an ongoing exploration of vocal timbres for choral ensembles. Rather than thinking in terms of imitating or utilizing techniques in different singing traditions, I’ve put my focus on the creative potential of vocal color as its own expressive medium. The title of the piece is both a pun on the harmonic vowel slides and the sci-fi like sounds of producing overtone sweeps with the voice. My ultimate intention of the piece, however, is to create a joyful and rhythmic musical ride, not unlike what I imagine traveling at impossible speeds through the stars might one day be like.
– Fahad Siadat
– Fahad Siadat
When We're Gone 10,000 Years
composed by Amy Gordon
conducted by Vera Lugo
soloist: David Saldaña
conducted by Vera Lugo
soloist: David Saldaña
"When We're Gone 10,000 Years" from Ocean Poems sets the beautiful poem of the same name by Jonathan Talberg. This piece uses hocket-like interplay between the vocal parts and metric displacement to create rhythmic propulsion. There is a limited set of rhythmic motifs used throughout the piece, including eighth note and quarter note trios, triplets, and metric displacement. The technique of text painting is used for certain words to bring the text to life, such as soaring, howling, and tumbling.
– Amy Gordon
– Amy Gordon
Flatland
composed by Alex Hills
conducted by David Rentz
Octet: Katelyn Dietz, Gabbi Coenen, Alexandra Grabarchuk, Morgan Woolsey, Saunder Choi, Richard An, Tanner Pfeiffer, Marcus Carline
conducted by David Rentz
Octet: Katelyn Dietz, Gabbi Coenen, Alexandra Grabarchuk, Morgan Woolsey, Saunder Choi, Richard An, Tanner Pfeiffer, Marcus Carline
E.A Abbott’s remarkable proto-science fiction novel of 1884, ‘Flatland’, imagines a two-dimensional world constituted only of flat shapes. How would this Euclidian hallucination work – he creates a brutally satirical social hierarchy based on the number of sides one has, and the regularity of those side – and what would happen when its inhabitants encountered a third, vertical, dimension, or the one- and two- dimensional nightmares of Line- and Pointland? This piece tries to embody this, both as sets of restrictions placed on musical materials (what makes music flat?) and as a structural narrative, exploring how dimensions might be introduced and withdrawn. I’m enormously grateful to the generosity of Peter Corcoran and Timothy Hill in supporting this piece and its first performance.
– Alex Hills
– Alex Hills
The Old Astronomer
composed by Alice Dryden
conducted by David Avshalomov
soloists: Katelyn Dietz, David Saldaña, Marcus Carline
conducted by David Avshalomov
soloists: Katelyn Dietz, David Saldaña, Marcus Carline
The Old Astronomer is a highly narrative setting of the text of this classic poem, exploring the relationships between mentor and student, between science and religion, between scholar and society. I have set the text as almost a miniature oratorio, with the soloists in particular speaking directly as the characters. The interplay of each vocal line reflects the relationship of the two characters, the Astronomer on his deathbed and his dedicated student.
What is the Astronomer’s legacy after a lifetime of studying the sky and searching for the truth? I also examine the fraught relationship between science and religion, especially in the study of astronomy. The Astronomer is a sort of Galileo figure, who spoke the truth he learned though it brought him only scorn and disgrace. He passes on this difficult but sacred duty to his student; to seek the truth and share it. Seeking to understand the divine mystery of the cosmos doesn’t undermine a person’s awe or worship. He found peace and an even greater love for the heavens through his study: “I have loved the stars too truly to be fearful of the night.”
– Alice Dryden
What is the Astronomer’s legacy after a lifetime of studying the sky and searching for the truth? I also examine the fraught relationship between science and religion, especially in the study of astronomy. The Astronomer is a sort of Galileo figure, who spoke the truth he learned though it brought him only scorn and disgrace. He passes on this difficult but sacred duty to his student; to seek the truth and share it. Seeking to understand the divine mystery of the cosmos doesn’t undermine a person’s awe or worship. He found peace and an even greater love for the heavens through his study: “I have loved the stars too truly to be fearful of the night.”
– Alice Dryden
Gone
composed by Ariana Stultz
conducted by Alexandra Grabarchuk
soloists: Katelyn Dietz, Vera Lugo
conducted by Alexandra Grabarchuk
soloists: Katelyn Dietz, Vera Lugo
This excerpt from the larger 10 minute choral work takes a section that focuses on a voicemail response heard from someone calling out to another, with no answer. “I’m sorry but the person you have called right now is unavailable.” At least, at first. As the piece continues, we hear the voicemail break apart, and as the caller cries out “Give me one more day,” an unearthly response unfolds.
This piece is about losing someone that you wish somehow, somewhere was still with you; and in grief, the lengths one might go to talk to them one last time if given the chance.
– Ariana Stultz
This piece is about losing someone that you wish somehow, somewhere was still with you; and in grief, the lengths one might go to talk to them one last time if given the chance.
– Ariana Stultz
Om Nama Shivaya
composed by David Avshalomov
conducted by Tanner Pfeiffer
conducted by Tanner Pfeiffer
I am no spiritualist, but in my second year in Santa Monica (1980) I was walking down Ocean Avenue near the entrance to the famous pier, and there was a giant tent set up in an empty lot with a motley crowd streaming in, of all ages and types. I was at loose ends, a little down, and curious. I learned that a great sri guru was arriving soon for a big assembly. I went in respectfully; the place was packed with a crowd all sitting on the floor. Earnest young Hindu men in suits and ties were gently moving people closer together to pack more in. Perhaps 600 people already. On a low platform before them were seated several violinists, hand-harmonium players, and sitarists. And they were playing, and all in the tent were slowly and endlessly chanting this Om Nama Shivaya melody, in unison (with heterophonic ornaments in the violins and sitars), over and over and over and over and over. It was like Music From When the Earth Was Formed. Young men were weeping profusely and rocking like Yeshiva Buchers. I stayed for about 15 minutes, soaking it up if not exactly committing to it, and then slipped out when it became clear that it could be hours before the guru appeared. I never forgot the tune or the effect of the mass chant, and brought away the impression that it was The Tune for that text. It is not; there are hundreds, but it is a very very ancient prayer, a salute to the goddess Shiva and one’s inner heart.
- David Avshalomov
- David Avshalomov
Aurora
composed by Diana Woolner
conducted by Marcus Carline
soloist: Gabbi Coenen
conducted by Marcus Carline
soloist: Gabbi Coenen
Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, entry “Aurora (astronomy)”
- Captured on October 1st, 2013
An aurora (plural: aurorae or auroras; from the Latin word aurora, "sunrise" or the Roman goddess of dawn) is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere (thermosphere). The charged particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and, on Earth, are directed by the Earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere. Most aurorae occur in a band known as the auroral zone, which is typically 3 to 6 degrees in latitudinal extent and at all local times or longitudes. The auroral zone is typically 10 to 20 degrees from the magnetic pole defined by the axis of the Earth's magnetic dipole.
- Captured on October 1st, 2013
An aurora (plural: aurorae or auroras; from the Latin word aurora, "sunrise" or the Roman goddess of dawn) is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere (thermosphere). The charged particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and, on Earth, are directed by the Earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere. Most aurorae occur in a band known as the auroral zone, which is typically 3 to 6 degrees in latitudinal extent and at all local times or longitudes. The auroral zone is typically 10 to 20 degrees from the magnetic pole defined by the axis of the Earth's magnetic dipole.