Credo

1999 5 minutes
Organ

There are two works with the name Credo

  • Credo — tape and organ, the third movement of a group composition Missa Digitalis
  • Credo — for organ solo

The material for the organ piece came from fragments I had written for my Credo movement of the Missa Digitalis (see below):

I took part in a Computer Music Project organised by Michael Heisch, whose contact with a very liberal cleric (called Felix Felix!!) led him to suggest a group composition of the liturgical mass. Michael found four churches which were prepared to have the mass performed in their buildings: Mulhouse (Fr), Basel- and St Gallen- Elisabethen churches and the Wasserkirche (ZH). After several meetings we settled on an “accompaniment” of an organ (played by Susanne Kern, Basel) and that there would be recordings made of a soprano singing and speaking part of the mass-text. Fortunately the number of composers wanting to take part settled down quite early on to five—the same number of movements in the mass: Kyrie: Junghae Lee (a Korean composer), Gloria: Philippe Kocher, Credo: myself, Sanctus: Martin Neukom and Agnus Dei: Michael Heisch, who also included an electric guitar in his movement.

Following the performances, Michael Heisch arranged for a recording (of the live instruments) and a mixture was sent to the Tonkünstlerverein who published the whole work on CD.

About my Credo movement in the Missa Digitalis I wrote:

It is a testimony to Life in all its forms on our Earth. The main material of this 3-part piece is the human voice which contrasts with the artificial electronic sounds. In the middle section we hear whale cries, which bemoan the death of Christ (Crucifixus) and in the third part the happy quacking of frogs and the twittering of the chiffchaff give hope for new life (Resurrexit).