lux perpetua (2025)

16′; solo harpist with two lever harps

I came across the Latin phrase lux perpetua while working on an engraving of Eugen Engel’s opera Grete Minde. The phrase comes from the Christian prayer for the dead that was being recited by some nuns during one of the scenes. As I was raised Jewish, and not Christian, I was never exposed to Latin by means of prayer. I’m not even religious, but the phrase eternal light, written in an old language, inspired me. It was inspiring because of my ongoing musings about the universe — I’m always struck by poeticisms I can use to describe it. In any theory regarding the future of the universe (the Big Freeze, the Big Rip, the Big Crunch, the Big Bounce, to name a few), the universe still exists in perpetuity. This piece, using two harps in different tunings, gradually expands its harmonic material as it evolves, which coincides with moving toward the center range of the harps — like an evolution of the universe, finding its heart, finding its perpetual light. Like many of my works, this piece ends with a suggestion that it will begin again — a nod to my favorite cosmological theory of a cyclical universe.

[score is available upon request]

This piece is composed for Cara Dawson, with funding provided by Musikfonds e.V.