Maria W Horn - Lo! The Dim Shadows of the Night

Lo! The Dim Shadows of the Night is a piece by Maria W Horn for vocal duo and electroacoustic sound, originally composed for the spatial MONOM 4DSOUND-system. Continuing the work started in her 2020 piece Dies Irae, Maria uses a modified form of traditional tonal harmonic language to invoke an uncanny middle ground between the classical western polyphonic vocal tradition and contemporary electronic music.

The piece uses a mixture of algorithmically generated synthesis, created within the SuperCollider framework, and recordings of glass in various iterations - pitched and arranged into harmonic grids, struck and shattered. The piece is sung by Ansis Bētiņš and Artūrs Čukurs from Riga, Latvia. The text is based on fragments from the hymn Ecce iam noctis.

Ecce iam noctis tenuatur umbra
lucis aurora rutilans coruscat;

LO! the dim shadows of the night are waning;
radiantly glowing, dawn of day returneth;