Oscura Luce

The Nederland Kamerkoor


Ensemble vocal Séquence


NOTE

Three movements that bring us from the Gates of Hell to the Light « eternally one », heavenly Beatitude. With three short excerpts extracted from Dante’s Divina Commedia (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), the composition begins oscillating between a tremolo and a stable note. The entire piece is alternating these to states, one vibrating and the other static. From the beginning to the end, the melodies follow courses where the words are dissolving in repeated phonemes before being reconstructed in a solemn way.

This piece was written for the Nederlands Kamerkoor and was awarded the first prize at the Fribourg’s International Composition Competition for Sacred Music.

« Per me si va ne la città dolente,
per me si va ne l’etterno dolore,
pere me si va tra la perduta gente.
Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore ;
Fecemi la divina podestate,
La somma sapïenza e ‘l primo amore.
Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
Se non etterne, e io etterno duro.
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate. »

Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto III, 1-9


COMMISSION

First prize awarded at the Fribourg’s International Composition Competition for Sacred Music


PREMIERE

July 10, 2008
Festival de Musiques Sacrées de Fribourg, Switzerland

Nederlands Kamerkoor
Klaas Stock – Conductor


FURTHER PERFORMANCES

Die Basler Madrigalisten

March 30, 2014
Predigerkirche, Zürich, Switzerland
March 29, 2014
Die Basler Madrigalisten, Münster, Bern, Switzerland
February 15, 2014
Die Basler Madrigalisten, Martinskirche, Basel, Switzerland

Cappella Nova

September 6, 2013
Dampfzentrale, Musikfestival Bern, Switzerland

Ensemble vocal Séquence
Ensemble Vocal de Poche

February 14, 2014
St.Gervais Temple, Geneva, Switzerland
June 30, 2011
Festival de la Cité, Lausanne, Switzerland
June 28, 2011
San Isidoro church, Rome, Italy
June 27, 2011
Pantheon, Rome, Italy