Arkhē
Solo piano
2019
Duration: 14 minutes
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was with God in the beginning.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
John 1:1-5, KJV
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God hovered upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Genesis 1:1-3, KJV
Arkhē: Ancient Greek: The source, the origin, the root of all things that exist. The divine element encompassing all that was to come, out of which everything else came to be.
Many cosmogonies speak of some variation on a dark, watery abyss at the beginning of time. The timeless first movement portrays this elemental water, and the Spirit hovering over it, in a stylistic homage to Morton Feldman. The second movement crystallizes the eddying dark water into hard blocks of light and grows into a powerful brightness.
Performance History
Paul Çelebi
November 20, 2022
Tanna Schulich Hall
Schulich School of Music
Montréal, Québec, Canada