Orchestration
soprano, Bb clarinet, drum set, and electronics

Commissioned by/Premiere
Sputter Box (Alina Tamborini, soprano; Kathryn Vetter, Bb Clarinet, Peter White, drum set) at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, NJ (November 8, 2025)

Program Notes
During the Apollo 11 mission, there were fears among officials in the Nixon administration that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin might become stranded on the Moon. These fears were prevalent enough that presidential speechwriter William Safire drafted remarks that Nixon would have given in this event. The speech itself is excellently written and well suited to vocal setting, but there is also something deeply macabre about it. Death is not pleasant, no matter how dignity a speech gives it, and dying in space is a uniquely horrifying concept.

Musically, the piece is about contrasts. The hectic sampling and heavy distortion sections represents the panic of dying in space, with text pulled from the Torre Bert recordings. These are associated with the Lost Cosmonauts conspiracy theory, which alleges a government coverup surrounding the deaths of several Soviet cosmonauts. These sections are contrasted with freer ambient sections that combine Safire's speech with excerpts from the Presbyterian Committal service. The vocal writing here has lots of jumps, which not only retains the lack of ease from the hectic sections, but also exposes the phoniness of Safire's dignity.