St Augustine's Confessions, Vol 11, Chapter 11 (L)
Women's choir-6.2afl.0.3.dbcl.0-0.6.0.0-2pft-2harp-2bass gtr-
elec.org(hammond)-perc:xyl/2sets of crotales(or metal plates,
or vib)/2vib/cimbalom/t.bells/2logdrums/5gongs/tam-t-
strings(vln/vla/db) Double basses may be moderately amplified
Abbreviations (PDF)
Boosey & Hawkes
Inspired by Augustine's question about the nature of time, Andriessen composed a musical monument that explores the relationship between stasis and movement. What starts as a Big Bang of timeless sound ends forty minutes later with a gradually dying sixteenth figure on the log drum – the unexpected second hand of De Tijd.
Note by Elmer Schönberger, courtesy of the Louis Andriessen Platform
"...at the centre of De Tijd stands Augustine's fundamental question, 'What, then, is time". And so, transferred onto the musical plane, the work manipulates our perception of musical time by means of its structural organization and technical detail, and engages us by the poetry that these generate. ...throughout De Tijd is the sound of bells, imbuing its ritual progress with a sense of the numinous." Musical Times
Netherlands Chamber Choir/Hague Percussion Ensemble/
Schönberg Ensemble/Reinbert de Leeuw
Nonesuch 79291
Buy the digital recording from Amazon
