for percussion, piano and sines (2023-5)
210′
to Siwan Rhys and George Barton
f.p. GBSR Duo, Sound Festival, Newton Dee, Aberdeen, 26 October 2025
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The blue hour is the period just before sunrise (or just after sunset) when blue wavelengths from the sun’s light dominate the visible spectrum.
The hours either side of dawn are a sacred time. They are associated with vigil: of keeping watch while others sleep; of prayer, of readiness to experience the miraculous return of light. A ‘thin’ time, in the sense of ‘thin places’ – where the boundary between the spiritual and physical world is perceived to be especially delicate.
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Night is the absence of the Sun, when it is concealed by the Earth’s shadow from the time it sets until the time it rises again…
…There are, in fact, seven parts of the night…Dusk [crepusculum] is uncertain light, for we say that something doubtful is ‘‘murky’’ [creperum], that is, between light and darkness. Eventide [vesperum] is when the star of the same name appears, of which the poet says: The evening star [vesper] would close the gates of Olympus against the day… The first part of night [conticinium] is when everything is hushed, that is, silent. Dead of night [intempestum] is midnight, when, in the deep sleep of peace, there is no time for activity for any creature. Cock-crow [gallicinium] is when the rooster lifts up its song. Early morning [matutinum] is between the departure of darkness and the arrival of dawn. Daybreak [diluculum] is when a bit of light first appears; also known as Dawn, it precedes the sunrise…
…Day is air which is lit up by the Sun…
Bede, The Reckoning of Time, tr. Faith Wallis, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999