2010/12; dur: 60'; 3 choirs, 6 noise musicians,
church organ, cond., sound and light tech;
Score and parts at nb.no
Crepuscular Hour is a one hour long piece to be performed in a cathedral or similar with musicians surrounding the audience. The piece is written for three choirs, three pairs of noise musicians and church organ. The room will be filled with sound in an intense, but almost meditative hour, where the voices blend with the distortion, the noise sometimes taking over, and the organ eventually hoisting the music to new dramaturgic level.
The piece is inspired by the phenomena ‘crepuscular rays’, which is when rays of sunlight stream from one point through gaps in clouds or other obstacles. The name comes from their frequent occurrences during the ‘crepuscular hours’ (Crepuscular comes from the Latin word “crepusculum”, meaning twilight), when the contrasts between light and dark are most obvious. The visual design of this concert is a play on the phenomena, as I want the light to be filtered by the obstacles and musicians in the room.
‘Crepuscular’ is also a term used to describe creatures that are primarily active during twilight, that is at dusk or dawn.
The piece must be conducted.
Photos from the first performance Sept. 18, 2010 in Uranienborg church, Oslo.
First version of the piece was first performed by Nederlands Kamerkoor, Latvijas Radio Koris, Det Norske Solistkor; noise musicians: Sten Ove Toft, Lasse Marhaug, Antoine Chessex, Kjetil Hanssen, Per Gisle Galåen and Stian Westerhus; Nils Henrik Asheim (church organ) and Grete Pedersen (conductor); light: Martin Myrvold, sound: Ingar Hunskaar.
Second version of the piece was performed at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2012 and uses texts from The Nag Hammed Library. It is released on DVD with film by Kathy Hinde.
Link to release of Crepuscular Hour (music and DVD)
Link to concert reviews.