VOYAGER

Commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Premiered February 12, 2023, at Disney Hall.
Dedicated to Grant Gershon,
my fellow artists of the Los Angeles Master Chorale,
and all who made the VOYAGER program a reality.

PROGRAM NOTE

In the summer of 1965, it was determined that a spacecraft launched in the late 1970s could visit each of the four gas giants in our outer solar system by using each planet’s massive gravitational pull to gain momentum and propel it onto the next. Such an alignment occurs only once every 176 years. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched in the summer of 1977. They became the first humanmade objects to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They photographed volcanic eruptions on Io, provided evidence for a global ocean beneath Europaʼs icy shell, and documented geysers of nitrogen ice on Triton. Before leaving our solar system forever, Voyager 1 turned its camera back toward Earth at a distance of four billion miles, snapping the famous “pale blue dot” photo immortalized by Carl Sagan.

Each spacecraft carried onboard a golden record, titled The Sounds of Earth, meant to offer a glimpse into the complexity of human cultures to any civilizations who might come across it. With nothing to erode them in the vacuum of space, it was estimated each craft could last a billion years or more. Even traveling at over 38,000 miles per hour, in the vastness of space neither probe would come anywhere near another planetary system for at least 40,000 years.

On the golden record were 115 images encoded in analog form, a variety of nature and animal sounds, an hour and a half of musical selections from different cultures and eras, and greetings in 55 different languages. Encased in a protective aluminum jacket, each record included a cartridge, needle, and symbolic instructions on how to play it (see cover image). Also included were written messages from U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim and U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Excerpts from these messages and the various greetings constitute the text for this work.

This piece is inspired by the Voyager mission, its incredible scientific discoveries, its stunning imagery, and the adventurous spirit and ingenuity of those who sent it on its journey. It is also about the voyage we are all on, together and individually, living out our lives on this “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam,” as Sagan put it. It puts a challenging, thought-provoking, and inspiring cosmic perspective on how we treat each other and this planet we call home.

—MB