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Programme Note

SECRET VOICES (1992). For violin and cello.
SONATA - ´The Secret Melody´
I - Prologue,
II - Roaming,
III - Singing,
IV - Playing,
V - Epilogue
The name of the sonata in five movements is “LA MELODIA SEGRETA (THE SECRET MELODY). The title is borrowed from a book by Trinh Xuan Thuan, the Vietnamese astrophysicist. Of the mysterious and inexplicable order of the universe he writes: Nature sends us the notes of a music formed by a melody that will remain secret forever.
The five movements of the sonata circumscribe a hidden melody: a clear melodic shape appears often enough, but it soon reveals itself as being part of another, superior melody - and so on. In this labyrinthine way the three middle movements, framed by a short prologue and epilogue, unfold different moods (roaming, singing, playing) in an eternal hide-and-seek of the melody (melodies).
The version for violin and cello (of the original viola work, for Nobuko Imai) is by Jakob Kullberg.
Per Nørgård (2004)