Between the Moon and the Earth

for string quartet, backing track and video

The title is taken from a television broadcast that was made from the capsule of the Apollo 8 spacecraft whilst on its way to the moon in December 1968. This piece makes extensive use of both audio and visual recordings from this Apollo mission. It makes particular use of the astronauts’ descriptions of seeing both the moon and the earth from a unique perspective; this was the first time that man had been able to look back on earth from such a distance.

Although I make use of the tapes from the mission, this piece is not a record of the journey from earth to moon and back again, but instead concentrates on the idea of floating in the middle. The music follows a similar pattern, whilst there is a linear progression (provided by two keyboards) the string quartet plays various floating, random elements over the top.

The piece is performed by a live string quartet who accompany a backing track of piano and speech. The video footage is projected centrally onto a large screen behind the quartet.