Itaipu (composition)

Itaipu is a symphonic work with a mixed choir of the American composer Philip Glass in the style of minimalist music. Glass wrote it in 1989 after a visit to the Itaipu Dam in Brazil and Paraguay. It is part three of a trilogy of works about nature and modern technology and follows the works of The Light and The Canyon.

Occupation

Performers are a large orchestra with triple occupied woodwinds, large brass apparatus, piano, 2 harps, percussion ( four players ) and strings, added a mixed choir.

Description

The choir sings to the countryside and the dam sketching designs of the orchestra a creation myth of the Guaraní in their eponymous language, which is one of the most widespread Amerindian languages ​​are spoken in Paraguay in South America and 90 % of the population. Glass used in his text a creation myth, which is about a deluge, which is caused by the misconduct of a god, but could be overcome by singing, dancing and praying.

Glass divided the work into four sets which merge into each other:

Performances

The premiere took place on November 2, 1989, performers were the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Robert Shaw. The German premiere was on February 12, 2006 at the Bremen Cathedral with the orchestra and choir of the University of Bremen under the direction of Susanne Gläß.