Bengal Lights - Olav Anton Thommessen

The richness of the music of the sub-contient is an eternal inspiration, showing music to be the fusion and balance of opposites: improvisation and calculation, freedom and form, rhythm and melody.Indian musical thinking has acted through thecenturies as a model for articulating thought through sound.I have based my piece on an Indian temple dance in which a short motivic nugget generates garlands and trails of sonic colour.The raga-form is maintained, with anintruduction comprizing a presentation of the scale-material, out of which the sonic nugget is forged.The work was premiered by The Norwegian Navy Band Bergen conducted by Peter Szilvay in 2007.This newversion was edited by thecomposer in 2015.