Symphony No. 6 'At The End Of Day' (1997-99) for Orchestra by Per NørgÃ¥rd. Programme note: ”… with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day”  (New Testament 2 Peter 3:8)  My SYMPHONY NO. 6 was commissioned by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra to be premiered at the millenium 2000.  The subtitle AT THE END OF THE DAY can be understood literally or it can mean “when all is added up”. However in my opinion nothing ever quite adds up there is always “something” missing any ending will be provisional ...  This symphony appears to end only a few minutes into the first movement the first passage as the music fades away to almost-silence after a start of flying colours. But then there is still “something” a small motive (first heard in the initial sound-waves) which reappears hesitant but persistent and this embryo is what leads on the musical progression. An agitated section of many instrumental voices comes next until all the voices become obsessed with the same phrase a see-saw motive based on thirds. This section evolves into almost martial ferocity when broken off by a tutti descent into an extreme bass-world (a bass-world which actually permeates the whole symphony emplyoing instruments that I have never used before: double-bass tuba double-bass trombone double-bass clarinet and bass flute).  The second movement the second passage apparently takes off where the first passage ended but now the events are more ambiguous and the same music may be perceived as fast-moving one moment and slow-moving the next. This section is a kind of passacaglia the characteristic baroque bass-variation.  Without a break follows the third and last passage in a

Third Part Of The Orchestral Triptych Triduum-Symphony: ‘Vigil’ (1997) is the last of three interrelated works forming Triduum commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra the other works being The World’s Ransoming for cor anglais and orchestra and the Cello Concerto (both 1996). All three relate to the historical events and religious liturgies of the Easter Triduum namely Maundy Thursday Good Friday and the Easter Vigil. The symphony’s first movement ‘Light’ deals with the promise of a glimmer of light in the darkness. The central movement ‘Tuba insonet salutaris’ (Sound the trumpet of salvation) is based on the Exsultet melody sung at the Easter Vigil described by Mozart as probably the mostbeautiful ever written. The final movement ‘Water’ opens savagely but subsides towards the presentation of two conflicting principal materials a wild ecstatic dance followed by a slower more mysterious texture leading to a climax and a luminous floating close.

Score-Critical Edition. This is the third movement of Ives’ Holidays Symphony or as it is officially known A Symphony: New England Holidays.