(includes the "Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal," the world's oldest known melody) VIII. Ad Astra .
The phrase is the title of the second disc of the 2020 album Human. :||: Nature. by the symphonic metal band Nightwish . It is an eight-part instrumental symphony that includes spoken word passages at the beginning and end. Spoken Passages
: Features a quote from Lord Byron's poem, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage : all_the_works_of_nature_which_adorn_the_world_v...
The "proper text" for the spoken parts of this composition includes:
: Concludes with a passage from Carl Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot : (includes the "Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal," the world's
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,There is a rapture on the lonely shore,There is society, where none intrudes,By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:I love not Man the less, but Nature more".
"The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization... lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. That's here. That's home. That's us". Full Movement List :||: Nature
The overall title itself was inspired by a quote from , who used the phrase to describe the artist's goal of imitating nature through their craft. Nightwish - Human. :||: Nature. - Nuclear Blast USA