Arcana

Arcana was composed by Per Nørgård in 1970. Scored for Accordion, Electric Guitar and Percussion. Programme Note: Arcana means mysteries, secrets, but the score for this very successful work (which was first performed at a festival of 20th century music in Dublin, Eire) looks quite lucid, simple and innocent, the same 4 or 5 notes appearing again and again in all parts, creating an unmistakable sense of monotony. The musicians, however, begin to play with this material, and gradually layer after layer of musical secrets, inherent in the material, are revealed, and thus a crescendo of musical events is building up in the course of the performance of the work, the finalstate of near-chaos being topped by exhilarating finale proper.Per Nørgård