'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)

SUITE for SATURN was composed using motives derived from global maps of three moons of Saturn - Iapetus, Rhea, and Dione. The latitudes of the craters studied in my research project during the 2014 NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at the SETI Institute were used to determine pitch, while longitudes determined note duration and beat. Here it is re-rendered.

A CHRISTMAS SUITE for a NEW ENGLAND VILLAGE is a six-part suite dedicated to friends and family. It features the different times of day leading up to and during Christmas, set in a little village of New England. 

The first movement opens with a contemplative walk through the snow as one returns home from work on the edge of town. The second reflects the chaos of children, finally free from school, playing in the flurries; the third, a more solemn trudge past the church tower as two people listen to the bells echoing through town. 

The fourth song takes us within the church for midnight Mass, a great and ponderous time for the villagers. On Christmas day is a classic sled in the morning for the village children for the fifth movement. The suite closes with another walk on the outskirts of the village - a final contemplation of the holiday time and its many faces.

A Christmas Suite For A New England Village - V. A morning sled on Christmas day

A Christmas Suite For A New England Village - IV. Diamond dust clouds at midnight Mass

A Christmas Suite For A New England Village - III. Walking home with them past the church tower

apartment

🧿 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

Khachaturian: "Waltz" from Masquerade, arr. string quartet

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

shoutout to the north gate @ the lab for being groovy (midi)

arranged from my piano sketch: https://soundcloud.com/divyamp/test

"north gate" for string quartet

from THEY WILL BE FREE: a song cycle, released August 23, 2017 
Divya M. Persaud, voice 
Najia Khaled, voice 
Benny Cheung, piano

i am born with 
wings: she sings 
me to sleep 
in this dark deep. 

mars speaks red 
beside my bed and 
i am earthling-two 
like flowers grew 

in this moment 
sailing beyond; 
a finite frond in 
starry torment-- 

my name is a 
destination, my 
mother a home 
i will never know 

i am born with 
wings: she sings 
me to sleep 
in this dark deep. 

she says, "no war, 
here," and i listen, 

she says, "no war, 
here," and i listen, 

"there is no sound 
in space, so 
i can't hear, 
mama dear" 

past neptune we flew; 
the question grew-- 
"i am earthling-two, 
so who are you?" 

she says, "no war, 
here," and i listen, 
and fall asleep, 
in this dark deep.

Earthling 2 - Divya M. Persaud, Najia Khaled, Benny Cheung

from THEY WILL BE FREE: a song cycle, released August 23, 2017 
NASA/Voyager 
The Planetary Society/Also Sprach Zarathustra recorded in simulated Mars air pressure

It is the not-so distant future. We follow two astronauts sharing a capsule, traveling through space. They are alone. And yet, they are not. This is the story of humanity’s search for life in the Universe and what it finds.

Enterlude

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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