Luminous Flux (2014) for eight voices and percussion

Mike Svoboda

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Chorus

2014

Alto

Baritone

Bass

Mezzo-soprano

Soprano

Tenor

Unpitched Percussion

Vibraphone

Program Notes: In photometry, luminous flux or luminous power is the measure of the perceived power of light. It differs from radiant flux, the measure of the total power of electromagnetic radiation (including inf- rared, ultraviolet, and visible light), in that luminous flux is adjusted to reflect the varying sensitivity of the human eye to different wavelengths of light. (Wikipedia) I consider Karlheinz Stockhausen to be a musical scientist as much as he is a composer. I admire the accuracy and thoroughness with which he pursued certain questions and phenomena, e.g. form or sound movement. There are touching works for me, Vision from Donnertag aus Licht or Mädchen-Procession from Montag aus Licht or also parts of Hymnen, but most of the works are more interesting for me from a scientific point of view. He explores sonic parameters and I find that very inspiring. Similarly, Leonardo da Vinci left us beautiful, enigmatic paintings. But when I read in his notebooks, I also see a person to whom it seems more important to understand why we perceive, for example, light, shadow, perspective, a line, or a point as we do, than to use these elements and awaken in us a feeling or touch us. Perhaps he too was more of a scientist than an artist. For Luminous Flux I was looking for sober texts for seeing and found them in the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. The texts combine matter-of-factness and poetry in a way that I find inspiring and sympathetic. There are not many lines, but the eye is central, as in music the ear. - Mike Svoboda, May 2014
Recording Notes: Luminous Flux (2014) for eight voices and percussion text in Italian and English based on texts by Leonard Da Vinci (english translation by Mike Svoboda)
Performer Credits: Solo Voice, Thelme, Dominik Dolega
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
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