The night more alive

by Matthew Whittall

Description

In September of 1888, around the time of the creation of his painting La nuit étoilée (Starry night), Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother, "I often feel that the night is more alive and colorful than the day." In another letter, he mentions about a trip to Spain that he found it necessary to make the journey slowly, in order to allow his eyes to become accustomed to the light, and to better see the essence of his surroundings, an idea I feel applies as well to a spiritual journey as to physical one. It is these thoughts, as well as my own powerful experience of seeing the glowing, turbulent darkness of La nuit étoilée for the first time, which inform the structure of The night more alive. An initial shock, in which something vast, ungraspable, is communicated in a momentary rush, is followed by a contemplative stillness, in which shades of sound are explored slowly, as if the formal implications of their true nature were only becoming apparent over time. © Matthew Whittall

Instrumentation

fl, vla, vibr, hp

Category

Chamber Works

Premiere

Reading session with Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, Porvoo, Finland, July 2, 2004.

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Archive number

MF18217

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