Instrumentation: sop
In Calliope, Cecilie Ore lets the music arise out of the text, taken from Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans. The written word passes via whispers and speech as a springboard toward sung notes in high registers. The diversity of techniques creates a richness of timbre through the voice alone, marking off distinct elements that interweave in a kind of polyphony and offer large dynamic contrasts. The work’s phrasal directedness and repetitive structure remind us of Stein’s poetry, often characterized by a rhythmic, minimalist style.
Siri Landgren
Cecilie Ore (b. 1954) studied piano at the Norwegian Academy of Music and in Paris (1974–81), followed by composition at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht and with Ton de Leeuw at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam (1981–86).
In the 1980s, she gained international recognition for works such as Calliope (1984), Helices (1985), and Porphyre (1986). Her electro-acoustic work Etapper (1988) earned both 1st and 2nd prizes at the International Rostrum for Electro-Acoustic Music, and Porphyre was awarded “Work of the Year” by the Norwegian Composers’ Association.
Ore's exploration of time as a musical concept led to two major tetralogies: Codex Temporis (1989–92) and Tempura Mutantur (1997–99), followed by the “cloud” cycle, including Cirrus (2002) and Cirrostratus (2004). In the 2000s, she shifted focus to vocal and text-based works, premiering A – a shadow opera (2001) and Schwirren (2003), and later creating politically engaged pieces addressing themes like capital punishment and freedom of speech.
Her opera Adam & Eve – a Divine Comedy premiered at the Bergen International Festival in 2015. The same year, she received the Lindeman Prize. Other notable works include the satirical Vatican Trilogy (2016–18), and the H2O Trilogy for string quartet (2018–2020), for which she received both the Edvard Prize (2019) and the Music Publishers Prize (2023).
Ore continues to explore the interplay between text and instrumentation in recent works such as Katsu! (2021), Hototogisu! (2022), and Lex Naturae (2023). She was a visiting professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music from 2020 to 2023.