Josefine Opsahl
A MASS OF STARS BLOCK THE VIEW
for Chamber Orchestra (2024)
Score
Josefine Opsahl
A MASS OF STARS BLOCK THE VIEW
for Chamber Orchestra (2024)
Duration: c. 12 min.
Written for the Berlin Academy of American Music
With support from The Danish Arts Foundation
Full Score
Copyright © 2024 Edition Wilhelm Hansen A/S, Copenhagen
Music engraving in Sibelius
Publisher’s editor: Rasmus Koppelhus
Edition Wilhelm Hansen, A/S Copenhagen Bornholmsgade 1A 1266 København K Denmark
www.wisemusicclassical.com
A Mass of Stars Block the View For Chamber Orchestra
The vast mass of stars in the universe is so dense that their lights prevent us from actually seeing the stars clearly and get to know their true nature. A well suited metaphor for the flashy sensory bombardment of our current time and civilization that makes it increasingly hard to view the world clearly and exist in balance with mind, body, culture and nature. Rampling news flows, noisy social platforms, virtuously tamed and framed discourses, hidden agendas and demands blur greater values, longer term focus and collectivity.
A Mass of Stars Block the View unfolds as an interstellar sonic journey that investigates the anticipation of everything being much greater than what is at hand or graspable; the beauty of “you can’t see the forest for the trees’’. An idea that has driven humankind to extraordinary inventions and adventures, and shaped current time’s society but also draws attention away from the raw beauty present everywhere; in the cosmic as well as in the intimate; in nature, body, simplicity - presence.
Mirroring our current time, the work presents a grand, cosmic, noisy and adventurous exploration of rapidity and fluidity held up against slow, melodic intimacy, solidity and the search for humanness in a world in disarray. Through three movements the work unfolds the unfiltered ecstasy of sparkling orchestral grandeur, interconnected rhythmical layers, masses of sound and movement - as well as offers its counterpoint: the raw and intimate human voices of the orchestra.
By exploring the intimate in the cosmic and the cosmic in the intimate, A Mass of Stars Block the View calls for synthesis instead of disintegration, collectiveness instead of polarization, isolation and alienation; calls for integration, spaciousness, collectivity and attention for diversity in the endless and ever expanding universe.
AMassofStarsBlocktheView forChamberOrchestra
ÍSnareDrum Snaresoff With Broomsticks (imitatingthesoundof collegnobattuttointhestrings)
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