MUSIC, SPACE COMBINED FOR ‘ELEGY’

In the movies, space travel is invariably accompanied by a sound track of suitably evocative music. For many, the opening theme of the Richard Strauss tone poem used in the 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” has become a leitmotif symbolizing space travel. In reality, however, science and space technology apparently have no need of the Muses.

San Diego State University composer David Ward-Steinman would like to change all that. Back in the halcyon days of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s citizen in space program, the SDSU composer-in-residence petitioned NASA to add an Artist in Space category to its program and to send him up as the first composer in space. A pilot by avocation, Ward-Steinman had long dreamed of flying higher than his single-engine Piper Warrior could take him.

“I wrote several letters to NASA urging them to expand the citizen in space program and include someone to report on the aesthetic aspects of space flight,” he said.

NASA’s denial of Ward-Steinman’s request took on a new light in January after the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, in which the first citizen in space, schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, died. “In reaction to the Challenger disaster, I immediately set to work on a composition in memory of McAuliffe and the six astronauts of Challenger 7,” Ward-Steinman said.

The resulting piece, “Elegy for Astronauts,” will be premiered at 7 p.m. Sunday in SDSU’s Smith Recital Hall by the University Symphony, conducted by Prof. Donald Barra. A chamber music version of the composition, which Ward-Steinman scored for two pianos, celesta, five percussionists and tape, was heard Wednesday afternoon at Smith Hall. The performance followed Ward-Steinman’s delivery of the 1986-87 University Research Lecture, an honor he had won earlier this year. Cmdr. Wayne McAuliffe, brother of Christa McAuliffe and a Navy helicopter pilot stationed at North Island, attended Wednesday’s premiere of the commemorative work.

“Actually, I realize that my own chances to be sent up in space are remote,” said the 49-year-old composer, “but I am eager to establish the principle of sending an artist into space. Probably they should first send up a writer--a Tom Wolfe or a Norman Mailer--who could describe the experience with flair. Then they should follow with a poet, a painter or musician.”

When NASA answered Ward-Steinman’s letters with a perfunctory form letter, he turned to members of the congressional delegation from his native Louisiana for help.

“The two Louisiana senators and a member of the House sent glowing letters of support on my behalf,” he said. “I now have an inch-thick file of letters and endorsements for my idea.” Since the citizen in space program was put on hold indefinitely after the Challenger accident, Ward-Steinman said his goal now is to persuade the new NASA administrator, James Fletcher, to reinstate the program.

“Elegy for Astronauts” begins programmatically with a loud, texturally complex introduction which the composer timed to last 73 seconds, the exact length of the Challenger flight. “After that point of maximum instrumental complexity, I turned to the tape segment, and the remainder of work is meant to be an abstract meditation expressing feelings of poignancy,” Ward-Steinman said.

Ward-Steinman’s appointment as the University Research Lecturer--only one SDSU professor is chosen each year--was just another tribute by his colleagues. In 1968, he was voted the Outstanding Professor Award of the California State Universities and Colleges. He has been a member of the SDSU music faculty since 1961.

As a composer, Ward-Steinman’s works are in regular demand. Two weeks ago, his most recent commission, entitled “Winging It,” was premiered in New Mexico by the Chamber Players de Las Cruces under conductor Marianne Gabbi. San Diego audiences will have the opportunity to hear this new work in April, when the San Diego Chamber Orchestra will perform it at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art.