As you know on Tuesday January 24th Pulse will have a Soloists' Concert. Each composer will be writing a feature for one (or two) members of the Pulse ensemble. My composition is titled The Lady Who Sailed The Soul and features Chris Howes on violin and Lis Rubard on horn. The composition is actually the first movement of a planned violin "concerto" featuring Chris and my ensemble Numinous, to be performed in the spring of 2006.
My composition is a violin "feature" and I have tried to take advantage of the virtuosity of Chris from both a techique and improvisational standpoint. The horn part is also very important, as Lis has many melodic ideas which tie the entire composition together. With both Chris and Lis, I also wanted to explore their lyrical sides and there are a number of passages which features their wonderful sounds and melodic sensibilities. It has been a pleasure in rehearsals to hear how beautifully Chris and Lis have taken my music and made it their own.
The composition was originally inspired by my watching of kites one afternoon in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The soaringness and elegance of motion brought my thoughts to the concept of solar sailing. About a month ago I found and read a short story on-line called, The Lady Who Sailed The Soul by Cordwainer Smith. While the story was pleasant, I was more interested in the title (I liked the multiple meanings it brought to my mind) and "the image of the great sails, tissue-metal wings with which the bodies of people finally fluttered out among the stars."
While solar sailing has been mostly thought of as science-fiction (most recent examples include a Bjorian ship in an episode of Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Count Doku's ship of choice in Star Wars Episode II-Attack of the Clones), space engineers have begun to seriously explore solar sails as a way to create continual propulsion for spaceships without the need for heavy and expensive fuel. In the spring of 2005, the Planetary Society co-sponsored the launch of Cosmos 1, which was to be the first test of solar sail technology. Unfortunately, the Russian-made rocket booster failed to fire and Cosmos 1 never reached orbit and the project was lost.
I have included few links for information on solar sailing technology and in science-fiction.
http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/innovative_technologies/solar_sailing/
I am really looking forward to the concert and if you are in Brooklyn or New York City on January 24th, come out to hear for yourself my composition and 6 other wonderful works written for some incredible soloists.
Joe
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