In 2015, I wrote the composition The Pillars of Creation, a work inspired by the Hubble Space Telescope image of the same name. In 2022, NASA published the first images from the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope. This included an image of the Cosmic Cliffs: a cosmic landscape with ‘mountains’ and ‘valleys’ at the edge of the Carina Nebula, the birthplace of new stars.
The new image inspired me to create this new composition. While writing, I imagined a visit by the Voyager 1 space probe to the Cosmic Cliffs. In my imagination, the probe plays the ‘Voyager Golden Record’, an LP containing music and sounds from the planet Earth that is on board. The LP features the Georgian choral work ‘Chakrulo’. I find the idea of a cosmic concert with infinite space as a concert hall, but possibly the absence of an audience in the universe, not only a tantalising thought, but also a nice bridge to NKO’s programme which includes several works that treat choral music in a symphonic manner.
The composition interweaves different emotions and impressions, such as the awe of the beauty of space, the unfathomable size of the Cosmic Cliffs with its peaks seven light years high, the emptiness of space and the lonely journey of Voyager 1 and its music.
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