Her Speed Left the Winds Behind

COMPOSER'S NOTE

‍Astronautica - Voices of Women in Space is a newly commissioned work of music, voice, and video by women composers, has a libretto drawn from the words of the women who have traveled in outer space and seen our world from a dramatic new perspective. Astronautica is an artistic evocation of the transformation that happens when one sees our small planet set against the endless blackness of space. Without borders. Without the artificial boundaries and that divide – and could well destroy – humankind. Astronautica launches Voices of The New, Voices of Ascension’s new commissioning program.

LIBRETTO

We came out on a night pass and soon the Earth came up.

We had a lot of things to get done and I went about my tasks.

An hour in, I was ahead, and so I thought,

“OK, I can take a breather here.”

We were pointed at the Earth.

It was just spectacular to look at:

“Wow! This is pretty cool to be out here, and to be looking around.”

You could see the Earth and you looked at it going by—“OK, where am I?”

I realized I’m not as good in geography as I thought—

when you look at a map, they always have lines, borders—easy to tell where you are.
 A whole continent, that’s easy.

But now, you study other features like lakes and rivers and mountains.

You look at the Earth and it’s going by: “Wow! That really is a beautiful sight.”

You look off and see the horizon, the end of the Earth, the atmosphere and then beyond— just pitch black space—

and you think, “Wow! That’s home. That’s our planet.”


Libretto by Hai-Ting Chinn taken from Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper’s Preflight interview.