related works
Made in Holland 17 New Dutch Blues : for piano / Elizabeth Gaskill
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Piano
Scoring:
pf
Trauermusik : Op. 41 Nr. 3 / Jan Koetsier
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
1010 0000 str
Gorgons - Three Mythical Creatures : for large orchestra / Veljko Nenadić
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
picc 2fl 3ob 3cl 2fg cfg 4h 3tpt 3trb(trb-b) tb timp 3perc hp pf str
Dance of the second-born : for orchestra, opus 31, 2001 / Frank van Gompel
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
2222 2sax-a 2110 perc str
composition
Cosmic Cliffs : for chamber orchestra / Bram Kortekaas
Other authors:
Kortekaas, Bram
(Composer)
Description:
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.
Bram Kortekaas