Arne Nordheim: Arne Nordheim: Flashing: Accordion: Instrumental Work

Listen (1971) was commissioned by The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation dedicated to Elisabeth Klein. Traveling through English-speaking countries I always meet people who ask me to listen. Now, listen they invariably say, listen to me, as they call for attention, warn me, or implore me. I want to say listen as it is seldom said - in a musical connotation. Listen to the sound of the piano. Our environment is full of living-room pianos of great value, beautiful to look at but never really intended to be listened to. In Listen I am trying to create a situation within the limitations of the piano, making some aspects of the sound from this black box truly audible. What I want to explore is the situation of people listening and in the process of listening having also the possibilities of choice. That is why the work is full of repeated passages: so many choices are advailable to the listener - enough choices of listening for everybody. The piece utilizes the differences in the length of strings and uses the extreme registers of the piano - very high and very low og right in the middle. The duration of the string vibrations creates a collision of echoes as the vibrations die away. Then the pianist stops playing this process of tonal blend, and disintegration continues within the piano itself, creating the moment of 'Listen'. Arne Nordheim

Epitaffio for Mixed Choir SATB (2008). Original text in Italian by Salvatore Quasimodo. In his String Quartet (1956) Arne Nordheim used the title EPITAFFIO for the third and last movement. And in 1963 he used this title again now for a complete work:Epitaffio per orchestra ed nastro magnetico.This orchestral work incorporates the Quasimodo text sung by a children’s chorus on a tape accompanying the orchestra towards the end of the piece.The present choral version was arranged and typeset by Andrew Smith based on the instrumental movement from the string quartet as well as thechoral treatment in the orchestral setting.

Intonation/Détonation by Per Nørgård - (A gold- and silver waltz with snaps of champagne) For Arne Nordheim on his 70 years birthday (20 June 2001). Composed at the request from the Norwegian Radio.