Shadows Of Silence

Bent Sørensen THE SHADOWS OF SILENCE For piano Programme Note The Shadows of Silence (2003-2004) Quite some time ago I heard - through a conversation in a mobile phone - a wonderful concert of ringing church bells from an European capital. I found it very hard to concentrate about the conversation, because I was so engrossed by the chaotic world of bell sound. The night after, I dreamt that the sound of those low singing bells was rising up from a piano in a huge empty concert hall. That experience became the starting point for my piano piece, "The Shadows of Silence". But before the piece gets to the ringing bells it moves through a landscape of shadows - Shadows of the silencebefore the bells - Silence before the storm - Shadows of melodies which all the time leaves traces even in the short passages of storm. After the passage with the low ringing bells the shadows of silence returns melted in to a lament, which are sending two regards. One to two small beautiful - not very well known - bars by Mozart, and one to the sextet in my own opera, "Under the Sky". "The Shadows of Silence" was commissioned by The Carnegie Hall Corporation and is dedicated to Leif Ove Andsnes