Piece Info:
- 7'30" duration
- Score in C
- No mutes required
 
Piece Characteristics:
- Sonorous, rich harmonies
- A leaping, heroic melody and imitative counterpoint
- Contrasting sections of chorale-like textures and a propulsive groove
 
Program Notes
From Titan's Sky is inspired by the Huygens probe, which was sent to Saturn's moon Titan during the Cassini-Huygens mission. While Cassini was designed to orbit Saturn (and eventually burn up in the atmosphere), Huygens detached from the main craft and landed on the surface of Titan on January 14th, 2005. It marked the first (and, as yet, only) time humanity has landed a spacecraft in the outer Solar System, and the only time we have landed on a moon besides our own.
 
The photos of many recent space missions have been a constant source of inspiration, but none have struck me more powerfully than the photos of the descent and landing of Huygens on Titan. The immense challenge to get something from our "pale blue dot" to this distant part of the Solar System, the tenacity of the scientists and engineers who made it possible, and the somehow familiar landscape of Titan's surface instill in me a great reverence and awe for the universe and humanity's place within it. We are small, curious, yet determined explorers, and we are fortunate that we get to see even a tiny sliver of the majesty of outer space. From Titan's Sky is an homage to Huygens, an imagined narrative of its journey to the
surface of Titan, and a message of hope that one day, humans might be able to see that view firsthand.
 
Many thanks to Erin Bliss for commissioning this piece. She and I share a passion for broadening and deepening the repertoire of brass chamber ensembles of all shapes and sizes.