Warum ist das Licht?

Programme notes

Robert Casteels’s composition, Warum ist das Licht, is a reflection on the Brahms motet of the same name. Drawing on the composer's familiarity with six languages, the work sets the biblical verses from Job 3:20-23 across all six. This technique highlights how identical words take on different nuances and emotional weight depending on the linguistic context. The piece opens dramatically with an organ outburst, followed by seven persistent, wave-like musical phrases leading to the central section. Here, the soprano enters alone to pose the core philosophical inquiry. The work then takes an unexpected turn by quoting the Kyrie from Bruckner’s Mass No. 2 in E minor, embodying the belief that "Music starts where text stops." While the composer avoids imposing a presumptuous verbal answer to the question, the coda provides a sense of finality through a purely harmonic resolution. The premiere of Warum ist das Licht for solo soprano, organ, and wind instruments took place in 1996 in the Victoria Concert Hall, Singapore.

Completion of the composition 

24-IX-1996