Night Sky

"Night Sky" by Nancy Wertsch for organ solo is a programmatic work meant to evoke the experience of gazing up at the heavens, catching glimpses of distant stars, galaxies and celestial events. The music is written like a series of different views of the sky achieved by peering through a telescope, focusing on one area and studying it for a while, then changing the trajectory and seeing something else. It is a musical tour of the night sky which culminates in a sense of awe and wonder at the immensity of creation, then subsides into a return to the opening moments of quiet contemplation in the darkness. Registration can be colorful and imaginative, and take advantage of spacial separation between divisions, moreso in large instruments with divisions separated across sections of the building.