Three Little Dogs from Sputnik - From the Opera: The Science of Animals

[Intro - Bright Orchestral, Skipping Triplet Rhythm, Playful Woodwinds] [Trio - LAIKA, BELKA & STRELKA, Tight Unison Entrance, Identical Rhythm, Building to Canon] ALL THREE (unison): Three little dogs from Sputnik, launched to see what could be seen, Three little dogs from Sputnik, none of us have ever been Anywhere at all like this before — Three little dogs, and nothing more! [Refrain - Nonsense Syllables, Bouncing, Repeated Each Verse] Yip-yap-yip, hooray, hooray! Yip-yap-yip, we're on our way! Nobody quite like us, we three, Barking at the Milky Way! [Verse 1 - LAIKA, Solo, Same Skipping Rhythm as the Trio] I'm Laika, first among us, sent up first to see the stars, Sputnik Two, a single passenger, no windows and no bars, I didn't get to come back down, but don't you weep for me — I'm a little dog from Moscow who is famous now, you see! [Refrain Returns - All Three, Unison] Yip-yap-yip, hooray, hooray! Yip-yap-yip, we're on our way! Nobody quite like us, we three, Barking at the Milky Way! [Verse 2 - BELKA, Solo, Identical Skipping Rhythm] I'm Belka, I'm the clever one, I chased my tail up there, Weightlessness agreed with me, I hardly had a care, I came back down in one clean piece to bark about my trip — The first one home to tell the tale, and what a lovely trip! [Refrain Returns, All Three] [Verse 3 - STRELKA, Solo, Identical Skipping Rhythm] I'm Strelka, I'm the quiet one, I mostly slept up there, But I came home a hero too, with flies still in my hair, I later had some puppies, and you'll never guess who got one — Miss Caroline Kennedy! Now that's a job well done! [Final Refrain - All Three, Full Canon Entrances Overlapping] LAIKA: Yip-yap-yip, hooray, hooray! BELKA: (entering half a beat later) Yip-yap-yip, we're on our way! STRELKA: (entering half a beat later still) Nobody quite like us, we three— ALL THREE (landing together): Barking at the Milky Way! [Coda - Unison, Ritardando, Mock-Curtsy Ending] Three little dogs, from Sputnik's crew, Nothing in the sky quite like us, it's true — So gather round and give a cheer, For the dogs who made the cosmonauts' career! [Final Chord - Bright, Resolved, Slight Comic Flourish]