2025-Apr-05 - Pillars of Creation
This week's randomly selected song Pillars of Creation is track #8 from disc #2 of my triple CD album It Was All Just a Dream.
Pillars of Creation first appeared on my 2017 album Juxtaposition, and again on my 2022 album Juxtaposition Reimagined. The original version of the song featured a bit more electronic synth sounds and more heavily distorted guitars, while on the final version from It Was All Just a Dream, I opted for much cleaner guitar tones and much more of an orchestral arrangement.
The Story Behind The Song
In working at an astronomical observatory, I am often surrounded by imagery of breathtaking celestial bodies. One such celestial object that has popped up on numerous occasions over the course of my career has been the "Pillars of Creation". This mind-bogglingly large object is a star forming cloud within the Eagle Nebula region of the Serpens constellation. The pillars stretch an incredible 4-5 light years across, and are located 6,500-7,000 light years from Earth. Words like "epic" don't really seem to do justice to the enormous scale of this celestial object.
The gorgeous photos from the Hubble Space Telescope inspired me to write this piece.
The Music Theory Behind The Song
The verse sections for Pillars of Creation feature a tonality with a contentious name. I know it as A "melodic major", but I've seen quite a bit of resistance to that name. It could also be referred to as A "Mixolydian ♭6". The collection of notes is sort of a hybrid between major and minor, and it also happens to be the 5th mode of the melodic minor scale.
[ A B C♯ D E F G ]
The lowered 6th and 7th scale degrees help create melodies with a mystical and melancholy sound, and this scale works beautifully over the alternating [ Dm → A ] chords.
The chorus then changes rather dramatically to a series of minor chords -- none of which could be constructed from the A Mixolydian ♭6 scale:
[ Bm → F♯m → C♯m → G♯m → Bm → F♯m → E → C♯m ]
Melodically, I handle these chords in pairs. The first two are treated like the key of B minor, then I just jump up a whole step to the key of C♯ minor for a couple measures, and then repeat B minor to C♯ minor.
The bridge section of the song features another sudden jump to an unrelated key. Right after the final C♯m of the chorus, the bridge starts with a chromatic neighbor chord C. The C chord is the transition into the bridge in G Dorian mode [ G A B♭ C D E F ] with the repeating chord progression:
[ Gm → B♭ → Dm → C ]
The guitar solo follows the bridge with yet another key change. The guitar solo bridge chord progression is simply the bridge chord progression transposed down 3 semitones to E Dorian mode [ E F♯ G A B C♯ D ], and the chord progression is the same, but just 3 semitones down:
[ Em → G → Bm → A ]
The final A chord from the guitar solo then provides a smooth transition to the final verse section and its alternating [ Dm → A ] progression. The final verse is followed by a final chorus and ends with a repeating arpeggiated Aadd♭6 chord in the piano with some reversed guitar.
Guitars and Amps
I used four guitars on Pillars of Creation. For the crunch tone rhythm guitar parts, I used my "Swirly" Ibanez RG470 and my Solar S2.6 both using my Synergy Soldano SLO, blue channel. For the lead guitar parts, I played my Sully 622 through my Synergy Fryette Deliverance, green channel. And for the guitar solo, I played my Sully 624 through the Synergy Soldano SLO, red channel.
Rhythm Guitars:
 Ibanez RG470 “Swirly” (1999) |
 Solar Guitars S2.6 (2020) |
Lead Guitars:
 Sully Guitars Custom 622 (2021) |
 Sully Guitars 624 CS Prototype (2018) |
If you love what you hear and want to support the music I make, please consider purchasing It Was All Just a Dream on CD or digital download. I will gladly personalize and autograph your copy.
https://chrisstark.com/it-was-all-just-a-dream
Keep an eye out for next Saturday's song spotlight, and as always, thank you sincerely for all of your support!
Love, Aloha, and Rock!
❤️😎🎸