Praesens Subitus

Praesens Subitus

Codex Temporis is a tetralogy consisting of the following works:

- Praesens Subitus (for amplified string quartet, 1988-89)
- Erat Erit Est (for 15 instruments, 1991)
- Futurum Exactum (for string ensemble, 1992)
- Lex Temporis (for amplified string quartet, 1992)

All the titles reflect a preoccupation with time. The "now" containing both past and future. The moment extended into a fluid present where a non-linear sound world appears. And within this world there are sudden "cuts" into the substance of time creating dramatic discontinuities in the overall continuous flow.

Technically speaking the pieces may be described as time machines, polyphonic clockworks ticking relentlessly. All the pieces in Codex Temporis have the same underlying time machine. The machines are constructed to define matrices of time-points, networks of time relations controlling and triggering the spatial dimensions of the pieces.

Time and space appear as complimentary dimensions. And complimentary opposites are essential in the construction of the pieces where the synchronized is contrasted with the unsynchronized, the linear with the non-linear, the symmetrical with the asymmetrical, the compressed with the expanded, the slow with the rapid, the soft with the strong etc..

Cecilie Ore