Echoes of Apollo 11 for Trumpet Octet and Electronics

Jason R. Lovelace November 2013

Instrumentation

Trumpet 1 in B-Flat/Piccolo Trumpet 1 in B-Flat Trumpet 2 in B-Flat/Piccolo Trumpet 2 in B-Flat

Trumpet 3 in B-Flat Trumpet 4 in B-Flat Trumpet 5 in B-Flat Trumpet 6 in B-Flat

Flugelhorn 1/Trumpet 7 in B-Flat Flugelhorn 1/Trumpet 7 in B-Flat

Electronics 5.1 Surround DVD of processed electronics (available upon

request from the composer) DVD Player

5.1 Surround Sound System

Introduction Echoes of Apollo 11 is a celebration of the American space program that recalls the his-toric Apollo 11 Moon mission of 1969. In this piece, digitized radio chatter from Apollo 11 released by NASA immerses both performers and audience in a 5.1 channel sound-scape. Instrumentation Echoes of Apollo 11 is scored for eight trumpets in B-flat. The first two trumpets also double on piccolo trumpets in B-flat, while Trumpet 7 and Trumpet 8 double on flugel-horns. Electronics are mixed in 5.1 surround and are available from the composer in DVD format upon request. Please submit requests for the performance DVD via email to getechoesofapollo11audiodvd@gmail.com. Requests must include the name of the per-forming ensemble, mailing address, and the date of all scheduled performances of the work. Please allow 2 weeks for delivery of the DVD. Audio Processing and Mixing To enhance the intelligibility of audio clips, I applied Apple’s AUHighPassFilter and Logic’s Denoiser to eliminate high frequency noise inherent to the original source files. Clips were then mixed in a 5.1 surround configuration using Logic Pro 9. Performance Configuration Speakers should be deployed on stands in a standard 5.1 configuration, with the sub-woofer placed in the rear center of the performance space. The brass octet should be po-sitioned in the front center of the space approximately 1.5 meters in front of the front-center speaker (see Figure 1). The DVD player can be operated from the performance space or a control booth. Scores A graphical score showing audio clip placement is shown in Figure 2. A score in tradi-tional notation for the trumpet ensemble follows.

Brass

Sub

C

R

SR SL

L

Figure 1: Speaker configuration (not to scale).

Figure 2: Graphical score.