Only You Will Recognize the Signal

Music by Kamala Sankaram
Libretto by Rob Handel
 
An opera for remote performance
For voice and synthesizer
 
Program Note
The music for this piece draws inspiration from the scientific concept of orbital resonance. Planets in the habitable zome tend to orbit aroun their stars in simple number ratios, muh like the ratios that create musical sounds and musical harmony. Each spisode is based on the orbital reonance of a system in the habitable zome and draws on one of Messaien's seven modes of musical resonance. The travelers begin in the key of Bb, which has been identified as the note corresponding the the vibrational frequencies emanating from the black hole at the center of our galaxy. As each Episode takes us farther away from our old home, we move down the circle of fifths until by the 7th episode we are in the farthest key center from where we started. Bob's world is entirely created of synthesized sounds. Even when he tries to create organic sounds to aid the travelers' memories, they are midi approximations. Our journey ends as the travelers must come together and create the world themselves, using their own, organic voices.