Beschreibung

Truths and mysteries is a work for solo soprano, accompanied either by organ or prerecorded sine-tones (the sine-tone soundtrack is available from Verlag Neue Musik). The balance between voice and accompaniment should always favour the singer and organists may vary registration to achieve this. The soprano sings fragments from the fifteen ‘O’ prayers, once attributed to St Bridget of Sweden (c.1304-1374), but probably written by an anonymous English mystic in the early 14th century, the music based on
Hildegard von Bingen’s ‘O spectabiles viri’.

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In the first chapter of Contrasts (1836), the architect Augustus Pugin asserts that the ‘symbolical architecture’ of medieval churches communicates the ‘sublime truths’ and ‘stupendous mysteries’ of Christianity in order to ‘embody her doctrines and instruct her children’ (p.2). But I wonder if the mysterious truth is really that, in our grandest buildings, we articulate our sense of the universe and our place within it? Truths and Mysteries explores this idea, building an harmonic architecture around a single voice.