for organ and orchestra (2014)
12 minutes
Instrumentation
Organ
3*222 / 4231 / timp / 2 perc / strings
2 Flutes, 1 Piccolo, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in A, 2 Bassoons
4 Horns in F, 2 Trumpets in C, 2 Tenor Trombones, 1 Bass Trombone, 1 Tuba
1 Timpani player
2 Percussion players: Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Bass Drum, 2 Triangles
Strings
Description
In A Globe itself infolding, the organ is first treated as an independent force, until, after a short cadenza, it gradually finds itself pulled into the orchestra and becomes enmeshed until the end. The organ gives all the impulses of the piece, but the composer has added a certain sense of ambiguity to its palette: one wonders at times if the colour of the organ blends with that of the orchestra or if it is instead the orchestra that colours the organ, as the title of the work, a quote from William Blake and Tanakh, takes on its full meaning:
The nature of infinity is this: That every thing has its
Own Vortex; and when once a traveller thro’ Eternity
Has passed that Vortex, he perceives it roll backward behind
His path, into a globe itself infolding, like a sun,
Or like a moon, or like a universe of starry majesty,
— from William Blake. Milton, 1810.
And I saw, and behold, a tempest was coming from the north, a huge cloud and a flaming fire with a brightness around it; and from its midst, it was like the color of the chashmal from the midst of the fire.
And from its midst was the likeness of four living beings, and this is their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.
And [each] one had four faces, and [each] one had four wings.
— Yechezkel 1:4-6
And I saw the living beings, and behold, one wheel [was] on the ground beside the living beings for its four faces.
The appearance of the wheels and their work was like the appearance of crystal, and the four of them had one likeness, and their appearance and their workings were as a wheel would be within a wheel.
— Yechezkel 1:15-16
Recording
Commission
commissioned by Orchestre symphonique de Montréal for the inauguration of the Pierre-Béique organ at the Maison symphonique
First performance
May 27, 2014
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Maison symphonique
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Jean-Willy Kunz, organ
Kent Nagano, conductor
Pairing suggestions
Camille Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3
Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra
Francis Poulenc: Organ Concerto
Anton Bruckner: Symphonies
Olivier Messiaen: L’Ascension
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 7
Access
Available for hire.
Contact Durand-Salabert-Eschig