NOCTALGIA (Gr.3)
SKU:
$120.00
$25.00 - $120.00
per item
For Wind Ensemble
Duration Approximately 5:00
Grade 3
FULL SCORE / 2 1 1 3 (+Bass) Alto (2), Tenor, Bari / 3 2 3 1 1 / Timp Perc (6)
Commissioned by the Warren Mott High School Band Alumni, to commemorate the retirement of their band director, Mr. Erik Miller.
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Humanity is slowly losing access to the night sky, and astronomers have invented a new term to describe the pain associated with this loss: "noctalgia," meaning "night grief.” While humans have had campfires and handheld lanterns for ages, the amount of light we currently produce through electricity is astounding. Our modern age demands that we illuminate our offices, homes, schools, markets, hospitals, roads, and in doing so we allow lighting to spill in every direction, both toward the areas we intend to illuminate and straight up into the night sky.
Only in the most remote deserts, wilderness areas and oceans can you find a sky as dark as our ancestors knew them. More recently, the explosive growth in satellite communication "constellations," like SpaceX's Starlink system, has put orders of magnitude more satellites into orbit than even a decade ago, with even more on the way. Those satellites don't just spoil deep-space astronomical observations when they cross a telescope's field of view; they also scatter and reflect sunlight from their solar arrays. The abundance of satellites is causing the overall brightness of the sky to increase all around the globe. Some researchers have estimated that, on average, our darkest night skies, located in the most remote regions of the world, are 10% brighter than they were a half century ago. The loss of the night sky has several tangible and cultural impacts. We are losing a rich tradition of human cultural knowledge; cultures around the world and throughout history have used the sky as a springboard for the imagination, painting heroes, monsters and myths in the constellations. These millennia-old sky traditions aren't just random stories meant to entertain around the fire; they are often cornerstones of entire cultures and societies. We all share the same sky, and anyone from the same culture can identify the same constellations night after night. The loss of that access and heritage is a loss of part of our humanity. Thankfully, there is a way to tackle noctalgia, just as there are ways to combat climate change. On the ground, efforts have sprung up across the globe to create dark-sky reserves, where surrounding communities pledge not to encroach with further expansions of light pollution. Still, those are usually in extremely remote and inaccessible regions of the globe, so other efforts have focused on working with community and business leaders to install night-friendly lighting, such as devices that turn off automatically or point only at the ground (or are simply not used at all). Tackling satellite-based pollution is another matter, as that will require international cooperation and pressure on companies like SpaceX to be better stewards of the skies they are filling with equipment. Still, it's not impossible, and hopefully someday, noctalgia will be a thing of the past. |
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