Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Richard Danielpour
The Night Rainbow (1999)
- Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)
- 3(pic).2+ca.3.3/4331/timp.perc/pf(cel).hp/str
- 18 min
Programme Note
Note:
Danielpour’s work takes its title from a children’s book by Carol Edens which ends with the line, “If you’re afraid of the dark, remember the Night Rainbow.” With an underlying current of propulsive rhythmic figures combined with lyrical string writing, The Night Rainbow captures both the wonder and the unease that the night sky provokes and leads ultimately to a sense of hope, consolation, and transformation.
Composer note:
Work on The Night Rainbow began in early November, 1998 in Palm Beach, Florida, and was completed on April 23, 1999 in New York City. The title comes from a children’s book by Carol Edens, which ends with the line, ‘If you’re afraid of the dark remember the Night Rainbow.’ This line, a metaphor for hope and consolation in the face of death, appealed to me, as did a chapter on near death experience in the, “Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.” I was further reminded shortly before beginning the work that the ‘Rainbow’ appears in the scriptures when God promises Noah and uses the sign of the rainbow to show that He will never abandon humankind again.
The Night Rainbow is a work about leaving the old behind and walking into a new world or a new time. It is a piece about life and death or, perhaps put more relevantly, about death and life. Whatever the associations, the music was driven by my interest in various transformational experiences that can occur in our lives, and the compassion and passion that make these experiences possible.
— Richard Danielpour
Danielpour’s work takes its title from a children’s book by Carol Edens which ends with the line, “If you’re afraid of the dark, remember the Night Rainbow.” With an underlying current of propulsive rhythmic figures combined with lyrical string writing, The Night Rainbow captures both the wonder and the unease that the night sky provokes and leads ultimately to a sense of hope, consolation, and transformation.
Composer note:
Work on The Night Rainbow began in early November, 1998 in Palm Beach, Florida, and was completed on April 23, 1999 in New York City. The title comes from a children’s book by Carol Edens, which ends with the line, ‘If you’re afraid of the dark remember the Night Rainbow.’ This line, a metaphor for hope and consolation in the face of death, appealed to me, as did a chapter on near death experience in the, “Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.” I was further reminded shortly before beginning the work that the ‘Rainbow’ appears in the scriptures when God promises Noah and uses the sign of the rainbow to show that He will never abandon humankind again.
The Night Rainbow is a work about leaving the old behind and walking into a new world or a new time. It is a piece about life and death or, perhaps put more relevantly, about death and life. Whatever the associations, the music was driven by my interest in various transformational experiences that can occur in our lives, and the compassion and passion that make these experiences possible.
— Richard Danielpour