The Last Signal
for solo piano and chamber
orchestra (2005)
1.1.1.1 (contr.) 1.1.1.0, perc, pno,
strings
duration: 11’
GRT • 113
audio sample
score
available from
Australian Music
Centre
program note
“After more than
30 years, it appears the venerable Pioneer 10 spacecraft
has sent its last signal to Earth. Pioneer's last, very
weak signal was received on 23 January 2003. Launched on 2
March 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel
through the Asteroid belt, and the first spacecraft to make
direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter.
Famed as the most remote object ever made by man through
most of its mission, Pioneer 10 is now over 8 billion miles
away.
The power source on Pioneer 10 finally degraded to the
point where the signal to Earth dropped below the threshold
for detection in its latest contact attempt on 7 February,
2003. Pioneer 10 will continue to coast silently as a ghost
ship through deep space into interstellar space, heading
generally for the red star Aldebaran, which is about 68
light years away and it will take Pioneer over 2 million
years to reach it.” (NASA)
This piece was written specifically for Mark Isaacs and the
AYO’s New Music Now ensemble for premiere in 2006 within
the Aurora Festival in Western Sydney. The solo piano
functions in a ‘concertante’ style and involves
improvisation together with fully notated sections. My
musical response to the idea of Pioneer 10 is a mixture of
nostalgia – the silencing of communication – but also
wonderment at human exploration in space and in general.
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