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 other material which give a peculiar “set piece-like” effect inthe 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”.