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Compose Like a Girl
The Infinity of Space
Ritika Bhattacharjee
Faith in the unknown becomes a more intentional choice as we grow.
for SSAA, S solo, piano
Set over a shimmering piano accompaniment, “The Infinity of Space” explores an ever-evolving relationship with infinite abundance as the singers confront their dreams of traveling to space in different stages of life. The opening represents a childlike excitement, and the piece shifts towards optimism: faith in the unknown becomes an more intentional choice as we grow.
Ritika Bhattacharjee is a composer, pianist, and vocalist who performs in jazz combos and big bands, plays for contemporary dance productions with Ventana Ballet, and underscores fully improvised musicals at Merlin Works, The Hideout, The Fallout, and ColdTowne Theatre. Her multi-media composition portfolio includes the scores for three short films, a video game, an iOS app, a string quartet, a musical, and a symphony commission from Austin Balcones Orchestra. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2022, where she founded and served as the president and conductor of Ingeniare, the A&M Student Engineering Chorus, and served as the band leader and pianist for Binomial Rhapsody, an engineering instrumental ensemble that composed music from math equations. During her undergraduate study, she was the lead jazz vocalist for the Corps of Cadets Aggieland Orchestra, performing scores from the big-band era on tour. She currently works as a business consultant in Austin, TX, and will receive her graduate diploma in composition from the European Academy of Film Scoring in 2024.
Composer’s Notes
The ordinary person, when asked to imagine an infinite number of something, will imagine countless multiples of the object in question. However, engineers are trained to view infinity as one large number for calculation purposes. Both views of infinity are included in the work: from measures 89-96, all voice parts sing “the infinite” on different notes, at different times, representing the first concept. Immediately after in measures 97-100, every voice part joins on the Eb, representing the singular view of infinity. The opening piano theme conveys the childlike excitement felt when dreaming of outer space. Just as we remain the same yet transformed by our experiences, the piano theme at measure 62 is similar to the opening but colored by the narrator’s trepidation. The distinct shift at measure 81 reflects the narrator’s intentional shift to an optimistic perspective. Optimism, though sometimes equated with naïveté, is anything but: faith in the unknown becomes a more intentional choice as we grow.
– Ritika Bhattacharjee
Text
When I was a girl, I tried to imagine the infinity of space
It seemed like I could only go so far and then I’d have to start again.
As a young woman I felt I could reach into space, and that seemed closer
Now I’m a mother, and I don’t want my children to go
When they dream of traveling to galaxies far, far away
But the infinite beyond captivates all
Imagine, the infinity of space!
Into the infinite, we’ll go!
– Shayla Rivera
About the text:
Written by Shayla Rivera, the Director of the ENGR[X] Program at Texas A&M University and former NASA engineer, the text represents an ever-evolving relationship with infinite abundance as the narrator confronts her own dreams of traveling to space as she grows from a little girl to a teenager and now reflects on that dream as an adult and mother. The poem captures both the limitations we encounter as women when we dream about our futures, as well as the limitlessness that occurs when we stay attached to our dreams despite those limitations.
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