science or geography themes

Composer's note:

In the northern Pacific Ocean, currents move in vast spirals that carry debris between far flung locations. A plastic bottle blown off of a landfill in Tokyo might turn up on the Alaskan coast. A disposable lighter swept into a storm sewer in San Diego might wash ashore on a Hawaiian beach. Miles off the coast of California, an immense sea of plastic slowly swirls, threatening wildlife and gradually entering the food chain as it breaks down into tiny fragments.

The densest of these despoiled areas, dubbed “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” is the size of Texas and extends thirty feet below the ocean surface. Our practice of using permanent, non-biodegradable materials for temporary storage will have potentially far-reaching effects on biodiversity and the health of people who eat seafood.

The Widening Gyre metaphorically engages this environmental catastrophe. My intent is not to depict lurid scenes of accumulating trash in a literal way, but rather to transform the general process into an engine for music-making. 

This work takes its name from the Voyager 1 spacecraft launched by NASA in 1977. As it flew past Saturn, Voyager used that planet's gravitational field to propel itself toward deep space, becoming the first human-made object to leave our solar system. Voyager's journey is immense. Traveling about 1,000,000 miles a day, it will take 20,000 years to leave the gravitational field of the Sun. Voyager will then enter deep space and travel for billions of years. At some point during this journey, the Sun will be no more than a charred cinder and human beings may no longer exist. But Voyager will be traveling on.

The Other Side of Time was written for the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble at the request of its director, Charles Peltz. It is scored for 25 wind instruments, timpani, and 4 percussionists. After a brooding beginning, each of its contiguous sections develops at a different but related tempo, often moving within from lyrical lines to dramatic outbursts. The final section, at the original tempo, recalls the material of the opening and its anxious percussion activity. While the piece is meant to reflect some kind of spiritual journey, the title is actually taken from a book by paleontologist/geologist Robert Titus on the origins of the Catskill Mountains in New York State.

rev. version