Freude (2025) 8′

for Choir and Orchestra

2.2.2.3 – 4.2.3.0-Timp – 1Perc – Choir (SSAATBB) – Strings

Freude was commissioned by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, which was set to open its 2025/26 season with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and requested a new work that could, in some way, relate to it.

I chose to use the same orchestration as Beethoven (excluding vocal soloists). Whereas he set the entire text of Schiller’s ode to joy, human unity, freedom, and brotherhood, I use only the first word: Freude. The piece was written during a time of global unrest and uncertainty, and my Freude is not a cry of celebration, but rather a distant and open question. The brass and winds play a single, ominous chord — the fate-laden opening of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s symphony.