• Per Nørgård
  • Voyage into the Broken Screen, Hommage a Sibelius (1995)

  • Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)

Programme Note

VOYAGE INTO THE BROKEN SCREEN
hommage a Sibelius (1995)

Please notice that Per Nørgård wrote 2 programme notes for the work.You may use what might be useful for the concert.

SHORT VERSION:
“TRIBUTES – album for strings” (1994-95) includes three hommages, which might also be performed separately.
The shared point of departure was the hommage to three major composers of the 20th century – Bartok, Lutoslawski and Sibelius.

"VOYAGE INTO THE BROKEN SCREEN" (ca. 6 minutes) is a hommage to Sibelius. The title refers to my 27 years older work, in which the title-ending 'into the golden Screen' suggests a blank surface.

Here the 'broken screen' refers to the multilayered 'broken' harmonic partials, quasi-chaotic in their rhythmic multiplicity of golden proportions. In Sibelius' music I've always admired the unique sense of the 'natural sound', the harmonic partials among others.

This concluding movement of my Book for Strings was composed as a dedication to Juha Kangas, the leader of the Easter Bothnic Chamber Orchestra - on the occasion of his 50th birthday in November 1995.

Per Nørgård (1999)

LONGER VERSION:

TRIBUTES – album for strings” (1994-95) includes three hommages, which might also be performed separately.
The shared point of departure was the hommage to three major composers of the 20th century – Bartok, Lutoslawski and Sibelius.

The title of my hommage a Sibelius – “Voyage into the Broken Screen” – plays on my work from 1968 with an almost identical title (“Voyage into the Golden Screen”) - ´broken´ replacing the original ´golden´.

In the work I use rhythmical patterns related to the “Golden Section”, approximating values such as 3:5:8:13.. etc. (the Fibonacci sequence, named after a Renaissance mathematician). In this way, a rich an ´broken´ sound world is produced, with a high intensity and a sonority approaching an almost chaotic abundance. The many layers of the strings, though, are concentrated by the two celli, thus unifying the different accentuations into just one line, ´guiding´ the perception with a certain melodic contour. At the climax, the music is interrupted – only a pale minor chord in the celli remains.
This concluding movement (ca. 6 minutes) of my Album for Strings was composed as a dedication to Juha Kangas, the leader of the Easter Bothnic Chamber Orchestra - on the occasion of his 50th birthday in November 1995.

The total duration of Tributes, Album for Strings: appr. 18 min.
(5 min. – 7 min. – 5 min.)

Per Nørgård (1999)

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