cosmic cliffs

About the composition

In 2015 I wrote a composition inspired by an image from the Hubble Space Telescope: The Pillars of Creation. Recently, NASA published the first images that are made with their new James Webb Space Telescope. It includes a picture of the Cosmic Cliffs: a cosmic landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” at the edge of the Carina Nebula, the birthplace of new stars.

The new image captivated me and seemed to deserve a composition of its own. While composing, I envisioned a visit by the Voyager 1 spacecraft to the Cosmic Cliffs. In my imagination it performs its cosmic concert by playing the Voyager Golden Record, which includes amongst others a recording of the Georgian choral song “Chakrulo”. This choir has infinite space as its concert hall, but, perhaps, no-one to listen to it.

The composition mixes a number of feelings and impressions, like the awe for the beauty of the cosmos and the incomprehensible size of the Cosmic Cliffs with its peaks of seven lightyears tall, the desolateness of space and the lonesome trajectory of the Voyager Spacecraft and its music.