Last year, I spent some time writing a fanfare in honor of the launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Demo-2 flight: the first launch of American astronauts in an American rocket from American soil since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.

Over the course of the rest of 2020 and the first half of 2021, I iterated on the score for and a recording of the fanfare — and published it to every music service imaginable!

As I suggested I might in the final post in my series on composing the piece, I knew that the basic output from Dorico and its HSO virtual instruments set was not really good enough to publish. Accordingly, I spent a good chunk of my time learning how to use Logic Pro reasonably well, and a non-zero amount of money on really fantastic virtual instruments to use with it.

The result is something I am content with. I am, of course, painfully aware of every. single. thing. wrong with that recording, and I have a list of things I would (will!) do differently for similar works in the future. But: it is good enough to put out into the world, and to allow others to enjoy. I am, all those qualifications notwithstanding, pretty proud of this!

So: give it a listen on your music service of choice! Also Bandcamp!