Before Dawn

Before Dawn transforms the first three stanzas of Hermann von Gilm’s poem “Die Nacht” into a spatial soundscape. Written for male choir, organ and optional light, it combines whispered consonants, overlapping spoken canons, vocal glissandi and microtonal inflections with sustained singing and freely shaped organ textures. Graphic and conventional notation coexist; the tempo is flexible, with a recommended duration of five to seven minutes.

Composer’s note
In Before Dawn, I set the opening stanzas of Hermann von Gilm’s poem: verses that touch on despair, fear and the darkness of night. I deliberately leave out the final stanza, in which hope, affection and a possible resolution appear. The moment of release — of catharsis — is still to come.

In the original “Mehr Licht!” programme, that release arrives at the end of Liszt’s Faust Symphony. Its closing movement brings male choir and organ into the orchestra: the same forces that begin the evening in Before Dawn. Choir and organ thus form a sonic frame — searching and tentative at the beginning, transformed and radiant at the end.

The work is a web of sound rather than a conventional choral setting: a cloud of atmosphere rising from the depths of night. It moves between restless fragmentation and consoling harmony, fleeting structures and dense sonic spaces. Optional light intensifies the interplay between the visible and the hidden, between inner and outer space.

The score places the choir in a semicircle beside and behind the audience. Optional lighting begins in darkness and gradually brightens. The ending evokes wind, insects and birds. In the original concert setting, it leads attacca into Liszt’s Faust Symphony; this transition is specific to that programme. Alternative scorings include mixed or women’s choir, with or without instrumental accompaniment.

The premiere concert “Mehr Licht!” featured Akiko Nakayama’s Alive Painting alongside music by Judit Varga and Franz Liszt. Nakayama creates live visual compositions from fluid colours and materials; the concert programme places her practice in a dialogue between music and visual art.