“Northern Lights”
August 29, 2016
THE Northern Lights, also known as ‘Aurora borealis’ in the northern hemisphere and ‘Aurora australis’ in the southern, are the fallout from solar magnetic storms. They appear as pulsating curtains of light in the night sky. This magnificent show can appear as far south as Virginia in the Northeastern United States. It actually acts somewhat like neon lights. Electrons collide with the earth’s magnetic field; the collision excites atoms and molecules and they give off light as they return to lower energy states.
The Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds (above) has brilliantly captured the lights in his composition Northern Lights. The choral work includes a Latvian folksong, for which I do not have the translation, and the text by two Arctic explorers Charles Francis Hall (1821-1871) and Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930).
You can listen to this spectacular soundscape which captures a man coming up from below deck on a ship at sea — “Come above, Hall, at once! The world is on fire!” — and being confronted with the brilliant pulsing sky here.
Northern Lights
Cik naksnīnas pret ziemeli
Redzēj’ kāvus karojam;
Karo kāvi pie debesu,
Vedīs karus mūs’ zemē.
It was night, and I had gone on deck several times.
Iceberg was silent; I too was silent.
It was true dark and cold.
At nine o’clock I was below in my cabin,
When the captain hailed me with the words:
“Come above, Hall, at once! The world is on fire!”
I knew his meaning, and, quick as thought,
I rushed to the companion stairs.
In a moment I reached the deck,
And as the cabin door swung open,
A dazzling light, overpow’ring light burst upon my startled senses!
Oh, the whole sky was one glowing mass of colored flames, so mighty, so brave!
Like a pathway of light the northern lights seemed to draw us into the sky.
Yes, it was harp-music, wild storming in the darkness;
The strings trembled and sparkled in the glow of the flames
Like a shower of fiery darts.
A fiery crown of auroral light cast a warm glow across the arctic ice.
Again at times it was like softly playing, gently rocking silvery waves,
On which dreams travel into unknown worlds.
