Only You Will Recognize the Signal

The music for this piece draws inspiration from the scientific concept of orbital resonance. Planets in the habitable zone tend to orbit around their stars in simple number ratios, much like the ratios that create musical sounds and musical harmony. Each episode is based on the orbital resonance of a system in the habitable zone and draws on one of Messiaen's seven modes of musical resonance. The travelers begin in the key of Bb, which has been identified as the note corresponding to the vibrational frequencies emanating from the black hole at the center of our galaxy. As each episode takes us further away from our old home, we move down the circle of fifths until, by the 7th episode, we are in the farthest key center from where we started. Bob’s world is entirely created of synthesized sounds. Even when he tries to create organic sounds to aid the travelers’ memories, they are midi approximations. Our journey ends as the travelers must come together and create the world themselves using their own organic voices.