DEEP-SKY OBJECTS

WATCH AN EXCEPT WITH VIDEO

The piece may be performed with or without video


Sebastian Currier’s “Deep-Sky Objects,” performed by Argento and conducted by Michel Galante, was the most substantive work. In this cycle, set to poems by Sarah Mangus, the protagonist tells of her love for a man on a remote planet……. the colorfully scored piece flowed effectively, with attractive vocal lines and vivid contrast between angular, driven sections and those of a more introspective hue.

- New York Times

                                                              Program Note

Deep-Sky Objects is a cycle of love songs set in the distant future, exploring intergalactic longing and desire.  It is scored for soprano, piano quintet, and pre-recorded electronic sounds.  When the piano quintet was in its heyday, the subject that permeated so many of the great Romantic song cycles was that of longing and lost love.  Deep-Sky Objects transfers this trope to the outer reaches of the universe   In the cycle a woman sings of her lover who is far away in a remote planet in some unspecified star system.  At moments she remembers a time when they were together, but mostly she longs for him and stoically imagines that his presence, even so remote, gives her hope:  

I can live in the world
With your love
because I know you exist
at the end of the black universe 

The electronics part often references various "sounds from space," from pulsars (which are routinely converted into audio signals by astronomers), the signals of made-made satellites, actual audio of the Huygens probe landing on Saturn's moon, Titan, as well as many sounds suggestive of the eerie, remote and unfathomable reaches of deep space.  Each of the ten songs is preceded by a short sample, or incipit, which creates micro-compositions based on the title of each song.  The text is written specifically for Deep-Sky Objects, by Sarah Manguso.

Scoring
pft-2vln.vla.vlc-elec. 
This work requires additional technological components and/or amplification. . 

Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.

World Premiere
9/22/2012  Hobby Center Zilkha Hall, Houston, TX
Karol Bennett, soprano / Musiqa