Satellites

for piano and electronics

Performance by pianist Chia-lin Yang, April 13, 2024.

Satellites is a suite of three pieces for piano and electronics. Each piece in the suite references Bach’s Goldberg Variations, specifically Variations 16, 17, and 18, and refers to some quality in the character and of those works. Satellites is also a part of a larger series of works drawing on the sound and science of flight and space. The music commemorates the work of early African American astronauts Robert Lawrence, Jr., Michael P. Anderson, and Ronald E. McNair, all of whom gave their lives to space research in the time preceding and around the era of the space shuttle.

The Satellites are so-called because they revolve around other pieces in this series, deriving musical material from them that is presented in new ways here and suggesting new material for future work. In Satellite 1, frequencies collected from words spoken by astronaut Michael P. Anderson during an interview from space are converted to pitches and the pitches provide the principal harmonies of the work. Satellite 2 draws on the distinctive parabolic curve of the space shuttle’s flight to space, tracking altitude data from liftoff to main engine cutoff point. This same curve is used to structure the upwards trajectory in the phrases of piano music over the course of the piece. And in Satellite 3, the sound of an F-104 Starfighter airplanes that Robert Lawrence, Jr. flew as a test pilot are analyzed for their component frequencies and then used to provide a harmonic model for the piece. These harmonies, derived from the sound of a single flyby, are stretched over the length of the piece by way of an mlp regressor, a neural network that is used here to interpolate between the harmonic stages taken from the original analysis of the frequencies in the airplane sound.

The electronics of the piece include Antescofo~ technology, a means to program the computer to “listen” intelligently to the live performance and to trigger sounds and processes in real-time as the pianist reaches certain points in the score. Here the resulting electronic sounds are used principally to reinforce and extend the resonances of the piano. We might view the space shuttle itself as a sophisticated airplane that’s been souped up with the power of its massive liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engines. Similarly, the electronics in this piece underscore the exuberance and mastery of the pianist, supporting her performance and efforts to achieve her own form of escape velocity.