'confluence' (2024) uses a mix of electronics, field recordings, and cello to play with the idea of the merging of bodies of water, connecting the canyon Sakarya Vallis on Mars to so-called Grand Canyon. The piece comprises four short movements, which represent the circular lifetime of these ancient environments long before rivers turned them into canyons: i. the lake, ii. the braided stream, iii. the storm, and iv. senescence. 

This piece was commissioned by Dr. Adeene Denton for their 2024 astronomy residency in Grand Canyon National Park. I am grateful to the Havasupai Tribe, Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, Moapa Band of Paiute Indians, Navajo Nation, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, the Pueblo of Zuni, and the Yavapai-Apache Nation as the stewards of this land that has lent itself to my imagination and creative process in composing this work.

confluence (2024)

🧿 ANNOUNCING The Scientific Endeavour's THE SKY SO MUCH NEARER 🧿 an electro-orchestral EP about disability, space and time, and the love of life and living. It explores transcendent joy, bitter regret, and Gothic melodrama with synths, samples, strings, metaphors about songbirds, and the occasional plaintive harp. Join us as we break out of the tower. 🕊️

☀️ 100% of proceeds will go to international student Ahmed, an art therapist and educator who evacuated from Gz in 2024 and is waiting to start his Master's in Europe.

Order: tiny.cc/TheSkySoMuchNearerEP  

The Sky So Much Nearer (TEASER)

'water' for pre-recorded electronics, Apr. 29, 2016, Ciminelli Lounge, Eastman School of Music. 

All samples mine: 
cello - scord. F#3/C3/F#2/C2
cello - scord. A3/C3/C2/C2
plane propellers at NASA Ames Research Center

http://www.space.com/25328-ocean-on-saturn-moon-enceladus-suspected-beneath-ice-video.html

water

MIDI / a little arrangement of a Scarlatti keyboard sonata x

Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonata in D minor, K. 141, arr. for String Quartet

composed with and lyrics by Najia Khaled - https://soundcloud.com/gothhabiba

WIPs

My Own Spell (instrumental demo)

Bartok: Romanian Folk Songs, arr. for String Quartet - I. Allegro Moderato

Arrangements 2017

Eccles: Sonata for Violin in G Minor arr. for String Quartet, II. Courante

Eccles: Sonata for Violin in G Minor arr. for String Quartet, I. Grave

Single from THEY WILL BE FREE (Sept. 2017) with https://soundcloud.com/gothhabiba and https://soundcloud.com/j_a_music

Image credit: NASA

Lyrics: 

we are a 
moment 
of time 
spared 
motion 

this is 
the end 
of earth, 
birthed 
umbral 

ocean. 

i am 
not 
alone; 
they 
speak 

inside 
me, the 
ash of 
beings, 
the last 

of home. 

they will 
be free 
among 
the 
stars, 

we, 
spilled 
clean 
among 
the 

stars.

THEY WILL BE FREE

Earthling 1 - Najia Khaled, Jackson Alexander

Single from THEY WILL BE FREE (Sept. 2017)

Rajiv Mohabir, voice 
Divya M. Persaud, voice 
P.S. Mukherjee, violin (1931) 
NASA/Apollo
Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Lyrics:

We speak in glances, 
us the light caught 
in broken glass: 
I your redshift 

ocean and you my azure 
desert. We trade secrets 
in the space between 
our days, the rotation 

of the night. 

You have said to me 
that the brightness 
by your side was born 
of the quietude 

we built of our shards 
and I wonder, often, at 
the glass that litters my 
mounts: their glimmer 

so rare. 

one day we shall meet, 
long from now, oh 
sister/brother, may we outshine 
these stars and see 

each other. 

The time will pass quickly 
before me you martyr 

but for now, let us watch 
this, the night, shatter

Mars - Rajiv Mohabir, Divya M. Persaud

Electro-acoustics track of "MARS" from THEY WILL BE FREE (Sept. 2017)

P.S. Mukherjee, violin (1931) 
NASA/Apollo

THEY WILL BE FREE (INSTRUMENTALS)

Mars (Electro-acoustics)

Piano track of "EARTHLING 2" (originally for voice/piano) from THEY WILL BE FREE (Sept. 2017) with @opus16no6

Voice/piano: https://soundcloud.com/divyamp/earthling-2?in=divyamp/sets/they-will-be-free

Earthling 2 (Piano) - Benny Cheung

Piano track of "EARTHLING 1" from THEY WILL BE FREE (Sept. 2017) with @j_a_music

Earthling 1 (Guitar) - Jackson Alexander

Piano track of "EARTH" from THEY WILL BE FREE (Sept. 2017) with @opus16no6

Earth (Piano) - Benny Cheung

(midi) from https://soundcloud.com/divyamp/sets/etudes-in-g-f-b-for-piano

i. naughty

This is a mode based on all variants of the notes G, F, and B – F-flat, F, F#, G G#, B-flat, B, B#, F-flat

Etudes in G.F.B.

Etudes in G.F.B. - I. Naughty

(midi) from https://soundcloud.com/divyamp/sets/etudes-in-g-f-b-for-piano

ii. dreamy

The scale is based on the numeric value of GFB (7, 6, 2) – sets (1 5 6) and (0 4 5) or (C# F F#) and (C E F), partly combined with the notes in (i) to form a scale of E, B, C, C#, F, F#, G, E.

Etudes in G.F.B. - II. Dreamy

(midi) from soundcloud.com/divyamp/sets/etudes-in-g-f-b-for-piano

iii. i loved the cosmos (for voice and piano)

The scale is based completely around G, F, and B (and transpositions of this sequence), centered on F as tonic.

Text, from "Things I Didn't Know I Loved" by Nazim Hikmet:

"I didn't know I loved the earth...
I never knew I loved the cosmos"

Etudes in G.F.B. - III. I loved the cosmos

an experiment in palindrome & sets (midi)

image: NASA/JPL/Caltech
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA04934

stellar nursery

These are the eight original cello tracks (before distortion) of "A Bright Star Out There" https://soundcloud.com/divyamp/a-bright-star-out-there-for-katherine-johnson

Cello parts were composed using planetary navigation plots from Blackshear and Johnson (1965) (fig. 7b) https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19650019137.pdf

cello: Divya M. Persaud

A Bright Star Out There (for Katherine Johnson) - original cello

Tribute to the great Katherine Johnson. Cello parts were composed using planetary navigation plots from Blackshear and Johnson (1965) (fig. 7b) https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19650019137.pdf

Original cello tracks: https://soundcloud.com/divyamp/a-bright-star-out-there-for-katherine-johnson-original-cello

cello: Divya M. Persaud
audio samples: Apollo 11 https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/a11_audio_db.html

A Bright Star Out There (for Katherine Johnson)

composer, cellist, poet, planetary geologist | scribbling & bowing fervently for The Scientific Endeavour with @gothhabiba

divyamp

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