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Voyager I Leaving The Heliosphere (Flute and Piano)


JordanRoberts

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I've decided to do something completely different than my normal thing. I've never enjoyed 12-tone serialism, but I decided to give it a little try. I don't follow the rules entirely, because I wanted to create something that uses it, but still sounds accessible and not like overly-academic wankery. 

 

The concept of the piece is a musical setting of the final stages of the Voyager I space probe leaving our solar system. It will be made up of 5 "Movements" with little or no separation between. The flute is the probe while the piano is the sun and it's solar wind, particles, etc. early in the piece and other stars in the final movement. Since the probe is a non-living thing, I decided to go with a more robotic sound created using a 12 tone row (divided into four triads) and some of its' inversions. Again, to make it more listener-friendly, and frankly because I wanted to, I didn't stick to any real rules or conventions here.

 

In the first movement "Termination Shock", Voyager I goes through the point in the heliosphere where the solar wind slows down to subsonic speed (as demonstrated by the slowing tempo) while the temperature rises a bit (warmer sounds from the "sun"). The movement starts with just the "sun" before "Voyager I" powers back up to send its' message home.

 

I will post the other movements as I finish them...

Edited by JordanRoberts
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Second movement is done...

 

The second movement "Heliosheath", shows Voyager I going through the heliosheath where the solar wind is slowed to the point that it is extremely turbulent due to it's interaction with the intersteller medium. The "sun" part of the music is quite rough here showing that turbulence while "Voyager" is chugging on its' course out of the solar system.

 

As this is meant to be played with very little pause, I'm presenting it as played with the first movement included.

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The third and fourth are now done as well...

 

In the third movement "Heliopause", Voyager I has made it to the very boundary of outer space where the sun's solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium and everything cools down. It is a far more calm movement with some lyrical movement in the "Voyager" part and only tiny bits of input from the "sun"

 

In the fourth movement "Bow Shock", Voyager I travels through the hypothesized "shock wave" created by the sun as it travels within the interstellar medium which creates turbulence. Some of the "sun's" main themes return albeit a little different, as Voyager leaves the system for good.

 

The final movement, "Beyond" should be done tomorrow...

Edited by JordanRoberts
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And it's done... I'd love some feedback on this!

 

 

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  • 2 years later...

Wow!  That was 9 minutes?  Went by really quick.  I listened with the score and got to admire your tone rows (almost?) always being organized into triads.  Because the music wasn't also really dense and polyphonic it sounded quite consonant for being a tone-row piece.  I think the program of this piece also organized the movements really well conceptually.  Great job!

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