KOMPONIST // COMPOSER 

Symposium is a longer work for choir with texts from Plato's book with the same name. The translation I use is by Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff. The was commissioned by the Norwegian choir Ensemble 96 and funded by The Composers' Remuneration Fund. 

Plato’s book Symposium is around 2400 years old and contains several speeches in honor of the god Eros, with a figurative meaning directed toward love. It is the day after a feast, and several of Athens’ most renowned figures have gathered to eat and drink, when Socrates invites them to speak about love. I was intrigued and curious to find out what we can learn about love from such an old text. I have written two movements that one can listen to below. The last two movement will be premieres spring 2026. 
 
In One must praise all gods I have used Pausanias speech. He describes the homosexuality of the time, where heavenly love exists between two men, while vulgar, earthly love is between a man and a woman. Here, I play with this portrayal of the genders, in a way that is the opposite of how we usually think of men’s and women’s voices. Women’s voices would ordinarily represent the heavenly, but I present them as vulgar and coarse. The men’s voices are heavenly, with light, beautiful, consonant melodies.
 
The other movement Each of us is always seeking, is from the comedian of the feast: Aristophanes. He tells of the third gender that once existed. It consisted of a man and a woman in the same body, with four arms and two heads. This gender was split in two, and now the two halves wander, searching for one another. Here, the music will be comic, skipping, with many major chords interrupted by sudden dissonant intrusions. A recurring theme will be a questioning “Where are you?”—that is, the other half. Here I will also make use of a choral speaking element.