Click the blog title to hear the music clip titled "Descent"
...some history behind this photograph:
March 1, 1954
"The biggest explosion ever made by man is witnessed in the Pacific when U.S. scientists explode their second hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands in the south Pacific. Over 7,000 square miles were contaminated, as well as many local residents and Japanese fishermen. It was believed this hydrogen bomb was up to 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. This date was designated Nuclear-Free Pacific Day."
I had 30 players but orchestrated for around 70. I was able to take advantage of overdubs by assigning different parts to the same player (i.e. flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon/contra bassoon, muted/straight brass, and divisi/unison strings). It was recorded by a student orchestra that I feel did quite well. It is mainly when you need them to be perfectly in tune that strange things can occur.
Here is a review of this project from the Sci-Fi channel:
"A short film inspired by the last chapter of Gravity's Rainbow, Descent premiered on the Science Fiction Channel's "Exposure," a showcase for short, indie films of an experimental nature. Created by Kevin Souls, the film is a rush of images set to dramatic music with narration taken from Pynchon's novel. Intended as a stream-of-consciousness meditation on Pynchon's themes using Cold War imagery, the two-minute film is quite colorful and exciting, touching upon science fiction tropes from Fritz Lang to Stanley Kubrick: rockets blast off, projectors flare with apocalyptic fire, statistical formulae drift across the screen, a nude couple reach languidly for eachother under a waning moon, German guns punctuate William Slothrop's hymn, and the final mushroom clouds come orgasmically in red, white and blue."
