Der Anfang
for mixed choir and orchestra based on a text from the Rigveda (2019)
Commissioned by Theater Aachen and Aachen Symphonic Choir
for the 200th birthday of the Symphonic Choir Aachen
Orchestra cast:
3(3=picc.) 2 2 3(3.=cfg) - 4 2 3 0 - timp, perc(1), str
Duration: 10 mins
Premiere April 22, 2022, Aachen Cathedral
Aachen Symphony Orchestra
Aachen Symphonic Choir, Aachen Opera Choir
Chorus master: Jori Klomp
Conductor: Christopher Ward
About the work:
In preparation for composing my piece 'Der Anfang' ('The Beginning')—commissioned for the 200th anniversary of the Aachen Symphonic Choir—I immersed myself once again in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. I was particularly fascinated by the passage in the final movement that speaks of the "canopy of stars." With a radicalism that is unparalleled at the time, Beethoven addresses the question of whether there actually is a Creator that dwells "above the stars," culminating the passage in a harmonically daring 'star chord.'
For my piece, I selected a text from the ancient Indian Rigveda collection (using Karl Friedrich Geldner’s German translation), which also explores the question of the Creator. In contrast to Schiller’s assertive declaration—"Above the stars He must dwell"—the Rigveda text concludes on a note of doubt, suggesting that the Creator (if indeed one exists) might not even know exactly how the world came into being.
Beethoven’s "star chord" appears in my piece as well, though not until the very end. Another source of inspiration for me was the English electronic dance music scene of the early 1990s—specifically acts like The Orb or Orbital, whose names reference astronomy (even though 'Orbit' actually refers to a London ring road). I have always found it interesting to forge connections between seemingly disparate things, so I attempted to blend the meditative atmosphere and breakbeats of ambient house music with the worlds of Beethoven and the Rigveda.
Remarkably, in Beethoven’s 'star chord,' two horns play the exact same notes heard at the very beginning of the Ninth Symphony: the famous open fifth. This allowed me to create a seamless transition from my version of the 'star chord' to the opening of Beethoven’s symphony, enabling my piece to be performed without interruption as a prologue to the symphony itself.
Anno Schreier, 2019