Den Blindfødte was written for the final concert of Dyssegårdskirken’s two-year Dogme Concert series.
The work has a libretto by Christiane Mossin and was written for Staka, baritone soloist, orchestra and organ. It was presented alongside premieres by Stefán Arason and Sebastian Thunbo Pedersen.
The piece was written in dialogue with Peter Brandes’ decoration of the church, especially his statue of the man born blind from the Bible. This gave the work a concrete visual and theological situation to answer: not general church atmosphere, but a body, a biblical scene, blindness, touch, recognition and the sudden possibility of sight.
The wider Brandes decoration — glass mosaics, altar tapestry, church door and silver sculpture — was also part of the situation around the piece. The music had to stand in a room where image, ritual and theology were already physically present.
The Dogme frame gave the concert another pressure: how the music is presented, how the room is used, and how a new work is allowed to meet the audience.
Source Dyssegårdskirken: Dogme Concerts ↗ · Staka: Concert at Dyssegårdskirken, 24 September 2024 ↗