1 / 19
0:00/0:00
Duo
2022
Piano
- Program Notes
- The immensity of the universe is simply baffling, yet we don’t often give thought to what majesty lies suspended in space beyond the view of our unaided eyes. Amid the sliver of the universe that we can perceive, we exist on a humble and miniscule dot, yet have the capability to marvel at distant beauties. Unlike any of my other pieces to date, I realized what this music means to me only after I finished writing it. The textures, harmonies, and melodies evoke imagery of deep space, of bright and intricate celestial formations, and of incomprehensible vastness. It is not my aim to condense this sense of wonder and smallness into a six-minute piano duo. Rather, I hope that this piece serves as a musical reflection on the mysterious beauty of the abyss and its twinkling giants. Where my words fall short, I lean on those of Carl Sagan to provide some perspective. Regarding the photo of Earth taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft at a distance of 3.7 billion miles, Sagan writes: “Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” (Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot)
- Recording Notes
- Recorded at the University of Colorado Boulder with Kevin Harbison
- Performer Credits
- Angelique Scully and David Reid
- Publisher
- Blake Clawson Music