Meechan Music James Webb’s Pillars (From A Starry Night) - Meechan - Concert Band (Flex-Band) - Gr. 2

• Model # PMM169

Composer: Peter Meechan
Format: Printed conductor score with on-line access code for PDF parts
Instrumentation: Concert Band (Flex-Band)
Genre: Canadian
Grade: 2

"It's not what Van Gogh saw that night, it's what he felt" Neil deGrasse Tyson

At the heart of Neil deGrasse Tyson's words about Vincent van Gogh's painting The Starry Night is the very essence of what I believe the arts to be when at their most powerful: something intangible, brought to life by a beautiful mind and with wonderful craft, that exists and inspires way beyond the scope of the artist's imagination.

Written at a time where the creative arts are being threatened by the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, James Webb's Pillars takes its inspiration from the juxtaposition of the van Gogh painting and this image of the Pillars of Creation my favourite image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and how technology played a role in the existence of both.

The invention of the camera, and its rise to prominence in the mid-1800's, made a significant impact on art and artists. Vincent van Gogh's dislike for portrait photography is well documented, believing that the resulting picture lacked life and expression of the subject's character. The new camera technology also led to many artists, whose principal income was generated from painting portraits of wealthy subjects, moving their careers away from painting and into photography in order to continue earning a living.

For the artists who didn't turn to photography and continued to paint (often in poverty), the resultant lack of portrait work sparked a new sense of freedom that would become the creative catalyst for works of great imagination and invention. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Van Gogh's work The Starry Night a painting full of incredible life, energy, and movement.

Whilst many forms of technology continue to be an enemy of the arts and artists, technology has also been at the heart of the most incredible innovation and has the power to inspire imaginations. The JWST, launched in December 2021, now beams data back to earth that produces the most stunning images of the stars and galaxies that formed the universe following the Big Bang.

The Pillars of Creation image taken of a region within the Eagle Nebula, which lies 6500 light-years away and The Starry Night are both full of the life and energy that Van Gogh desired the lines and movement in his own masterwork, and the JWST image capturing stars being born, dust forming vast pillars reaching out into space, and young stars shining bright as older stars wane.

James Webb's Pillars draws on many aspects of the life contained within the JWST image; the joy and beauty of the stars, the silence that the stars and dust exist in, and the new life and violent collisions that create the beauty of the photograph.

James Webb's Pillars is dedicated to my friend, Luke Johnson.

Pete Meechan, May 2024