The final version of Robert HP Platz’s Stunden:Buch will be premiered in Würzburg on November 2, 2014 . Here is an introduction by the composer.

“Is it at all possible to compose without thinking about how time passes? Music creates time; music creates a flow of time that each listener experiences in a different way for each piece because every piece and every listener is different.

On the other hand, time can also be displayed and shown in music. That is why in some Asian cultures certain kinds of music are connected to a specific time of the day. For this reason I thought long about writing a piece of music that is connected to a specific time of the day, like the Ragas in Indian music.

For Stunden:Buch, there were also other sources of inspirations: similar tendencies in Gregorian chant and the medieval gems of “Stundenbücher” (books of hours) that were meant to provide a spiritual structure for the daily routine. To them I want to add my music as a companion through the hours of the day and the night.

The attempt to write a complete cycle was triggered by a commission from the competition „L’Europe & l’Orgue“ in 1999 (III: Vesper). This material served as a nucleus. Next came the opening movement (I: Matutin/Laudes), which was written for the opening concert of the 50th season of the organ celebration performance series at the Cologne Cathedral. Shortly afterwards, another movement was written (IV: Complet), which finishes the work. After these outer movements were performed, the next logical step was to finally complete the cycle.

The other movements were written at a later stage (II: Horen 1-4). They are rather short and can therefore also be used for liturgical purposes like IV Complet (written for the baptism of my son during Easter vigil 2012). The epilogue Licht vom Beginn der Zeit was composed for double (boys) choir as a veritable Nachtmusik. The sound dissolves in space and silence; it becomes the link to the beginning of the next day.”