A Present From a Small Distant World by Alex Eddington was selected from 800 submissions to be part of KC VITA choir’s annual Summer Series concerts in Kansas City, MO. This will be a world premiere.
The text (see below) by former US President Jimmy Carter, is from the Golden Record housed on the two Voyager spacecraft, the farthest human-made objects from earth, still speeding outward beyond our solar system. Flowing and mysterious a cappella setting is accompanied by a background texture made from fragments of morse code, with individual singers spelling out the phrase “Per Aspera Ad Astra” (Through Hardship to the Stars) which is etched on the Golden Record.
A Present From a Small Distant World is available in SATB, SSAA and TTBB arrangements. Please contact the composer for details and a perusal score.
There will be two performances in Kansas City in August 2019:
AUG 2 - 7 p.m. - St. Paul's Episcopal Church KCMO
AUG 4 - 2:30 p.m. - St. Peter's Parish Catholic Church KCMO
“We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some—perhaps many—may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message:
This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.”