Modlys

Per Nørgård

The title translates from Danish as "Backlight."

General Info

Year: 1970
Duration: c. 13:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Wilhelm Hansen
Cost: Score and Parts - Rental

Instrumentation

Full Score
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II
B-flat Soprano Saxophone I-II
B-flat Trumpet I-II
Trombone I-II-III-IV
Tuba I-II
Piano I-II
Percussion, including:

Bass Drum
Chimes
Marimba
Tam-Tam
Tom Toms (4)
Vibraphone
Xylophone

Errata

In parts:

Percussion II (bottom stave), p.5, m.260: This passage is played by 4 tom toms (bass clef spaces G, E, C, & A), and a bass drum (F below the clef), not by chimes.

Program Notes

There is a strange paradox connected with the “backlight” phenomenon. On the one hand the foreground and its objects appear in clear profile; on the other, the eye is dazzled by a strongly direct amount of light. It is this paradoxical phenomenon that I experienced for my inner ear when I wrote the chamber music work Backlight. Here, too, there is a clear and tranquil background which allows the many musical figures in the foreground to appear in profile, in much the same way as bagpipes´ bass notes emphasize the many melodic notes.

In Backlight two trumpets and two tubas take on a kind of intermediary role between the principal players: four trombones (background) and the rest of the instruments (foreground).

This is most definitely a composition for space, whose various dimensions are interwoven into the music.

The work was composed in 1970 for the inauguration of the new concert hall at the Royal Academy of Music, Århus, and is dedicated to Åse and Tage Nielsen.

- Program Note by composer

Media

Audio: Royal Academy of Music Chamber Ensemble
Audio CD: Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Force – 2013

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Works for Winds by This Composer

Resources

Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. "Per Nørgård." Accessed 23 August 2015.
Nørgård, P. (1970). Modlys = Backlight [score]. Edition Wilhelm Hansen: Kopenhagen.