Stratifications

Stratifications was composed by Hans Abrahamsen in 1973-75 and was premiered in the summer 1977 by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at the Young Nordic Music Festival in Reykjavik.

Programme note:

The stratifications referred to in the title unfold two different levels. There is the stratification of the time dimension produced by the opposition of contrasting parts; at the same time the polyphony, the presence of several simultaneously sounding layers, is of great importance to the music. By garish colours and clear-cut outlines a polyrhythmic simultaneousness of simple melodies is produced with more gestic music and othermaterial which give a peculiar “set piece-like” effect in the sound picture. The “new simplicity” details are here woven together in a new kind of complex whole. “Stratifications” begins with a series of concretistic masklike “pictures of the music”. It is like seeing lantern slides. But this “fictive” form crackles and the music gets attentive and real. The music is in a night-mare condition, where it is not getting anywhere in spite of a great dynamic display. But finally is liberating itself and rising “in triumph”.