Carl Sagan challenged and inspired a generation to consider a universe not made for us, to look beyond our planet, and at the same time to recognize its fragility and preciousness. He played a leading role in space exploration, planetary science, the study of the origins of life and the hunt for radio signals from extra-terrestrial civilizations. I attended a series of lectures by Sagan at Cornell University in the early 70s and have been a fan ever since. In "Other Worlds," I have tried to paint in sound a vista such as might be seen by the shores of the nitrogen lakes of Triton, freshly covered with methane snow and irradiated into the material of life.

Complete instrumentation:
  Zeta electronic/MIDI violin
  4 flutes, doubling piccolo
  2 oboes
  8 Bb clarinets, 2 doubling Bb bass clarinet
  2 bassoons
  2 alto saxophones
  2 tenor saxophones
  4 horns
  4 trumpets 
  4 trombones
  2 euphoniums
  2 tubas
  4 percussion
  1 piano/celesta

1-minute (1.56m) sound excerpt from Other Worlds. Andrew Jennings and the University of Michigan Symphonic Band, H. Robert Reynolds, conductor.