SKU: HL.48024013

ISBN 9781495090097. UPC: 888680671266. 11x14 inches.

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.–Sebastian Currier.

SKU: HL.48024916

ISBN 9781705105788. UPC: 840126935295. 9.0x12.0x0.171 inches.

Note from the composer: For a number of years I had been thinking of writing a piece based on the sound of plucked Instruments like the mandolin, guitar and harp, so when the Dutch Nieuw Ensemble asked me for a piece I realised that this group had excellent players of these three Instruments to which I added trumpet, trombone and vibraphone and composed a one-movement Fantasy whose Dutch titles was chosen by the ensemble (meaning moods). The score opens with a fast movement that presents each Instrument in brief solos between moments for the entire group. This is followed by a slow movement during which the mandolin picks out a line of short notes. A guitar solo accompanied by the group follows and the work concludes with a coda for the sextet. The music was composed during the early summer of 1997 in Southbury, Connecticut. - Elliott Carter -.