Apocrypha

The first ideas, that led to the creation of APOCRYPHA, date back to my first years of studying composition in Reykjavik Collage of Music around 1998–1999. By then I was already fascinated by the relationship between the old and the new in music. I experienced this relationship on many different levels, for example when I heard a Gregorian chant performed right after a contemporary atonal piece. The drastic contrast triggered some new and unexplored feelings within me. By then I already wanted to write a piece, which somehow captured these feelings by reflecting on the old and the new. However, I did not just want to juxtapose old and new music, but rather explore the more complex and abstract in this relationship; the old within the new and the new within the old.

As the years went by these ideas began to take shape and I felt I needed to dedicate a considerable amount of time if I wanted to realize them and write this piece. I dedicated nearly two years, fall 2005 to spring 2007, solely to APOCRYPHA and together with Hanna, my girlfriend, I moved from Denmark to Holland to work on the piece at the Institute of Sonology in The Hague. The world premiere was in summer 2007 in Holland and later that summer it was performed twice in Iceland. On a few warm and bright nights leading up to the Iceland concerts, in the peaceful settings of Skálholt, we recorded the piece for this CD.

The interaction between old and new is present on many levels in the piece. The most obvious one is the period instruments being amplified and playing new music with electronics, but there are also other types of interaction. The composition material is largely twofold and each part represents the old and the new respectively. Within the main material (which can be heard in it's purest form in movements 3, 5 and 9) is a “hidden” C major chord. That chord material is actually treated in a similar way as the traditional tonal harmony system even though the chords themselves are different. The contrasting chord material (the first movement for instance) is often more dissonant where even all the 12 tones can sound simultaneously. That material is organized and generated with the help of algorithmic calculations and the same calculations were also used to generate the electronic sounds, which often makes them blend in with the sounds of the instruments. It can also be mentioned that the framework of the piece and the name of the movements are loosely based on the Canonical Hours of the Christian church although here they are put into a very different context. Old rituals, but new context and interpretation. These are just a few examples about the interaction between old and new in the piece but it is present on many other levels. Sometimes it is obvious, but sometimes more obscure.

APOCRYPHA means something that is hidden or obscure and the title came about as I did not want to explain the meaning of the piece or tell people what and how to feel. The movements are meditations on personal feelings, which are impossible to put into words. Each listener should, therefore, turn the music into a personal meditation, which makes sense to them.

Copenhagen in June 2008
Hugi Guðmundsson