Looking Up

Michael McEneny

Instrumentation:
Solo Piano

Programme Note
As long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the great mystery of what awaits human kind in space. The act of staring into space on a night with a clear sky and observing the wonders above, even simply observing only the stars visible to the naked eye can provoke a sense of our relative insignificance in the Universe. Looking Up is written in tribute to two great men who sadly departed the earth this year, Sir Patrick Moore and Neil Armstrong who both in their own way helped precipitate my fascination with the mysteries of the above; Moore through television programmes and the passing on of knowledge and Armstrong, by being the first man to walk on the moon, representing a truly (in his own words) awesome giant leap for mankind and an inspiration to all. The piece depicts different stages of space exploration, the opening phrase is a homage to another great space based, childhood love Star Trek and is based on the opening five notes of the theme to that famous TV show. Throughout the piece I attempt to develop this fragment of the Star Trek based opening to illustrate the action of gazing towards the skies with the stars twinkling far in the distance followed by an ascent upwards, a moment in which the astronauts would break free from the earths atmosphere and be in space, floating around and finally a dramatic descent back to earth and reality.