Per Nørgård

Lila

Norgard writes of his work:

Lila is a Sanskrit word for playing with the elements, and I chose it as the title of the chamber work I composed in 1972 because its coolly systematic play (with overtones and undertones in the infinity sequences and a spectrum of Golden Sections in the rhythms) is characteristic of the period just before I wrote my Third Symphony (1973-75). The work was given its first performance in Venice, in the Teatro La Fenice on 9th September 1972, alongside Kagel's Anagram, from which Lila borrowed its instrumentation, since it was commissioned for a first performance by the Prisma Ensemble along with Anagram, with Tamas Vetö, to whom it is dedicated, conducting.

Ensemble: 4 percussionists (gong, 3 tam-tams, crotales, glockenspiel, tubular bells, celesta, vibraphone, xylophone), 2 pianos, 2 harps, flute (as well as flute in G and piccolo), B flat clarinet (and bass clarinet).