• Per Nørgård
  • Secret Voices (2004)

  • Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)


Jakob Kullberg

  • vn, vc
  • 11 min

Programme Note

SONATA - ´The Secret Melody´

I - Prologue,
II - Roaming,
III - Singing,
IV - Playing,
V - Epilogue

The name of the sonata in five movements is “LA MELODIA SEGRETA (THE SECRET MELODY)". The title is borrowed from a book by Trinh Xuan Thuan, the Vietnamese astrophysicist. Of the mysterious and inexplicable order of the universe he writes: Nature sends us the notes of a music formed by a melody that will remain secret forever.
The five movements of the sonata circumscribe a hidden melody: a clear melodic shape appears often enough, but it soon reveals itself as being part of another, superior melody - and so on. In this labyrinthine way the three middle movements, framed by a short prologue and epilogue, unfold different moods (roaming, singing, playing) in an eternal hide-and-seek of the melody (melodies).

The version for violin and cello (of the original viola work, for Nobuko Imai) is by Jakob Kullberg.

Per Nørgård (2004)