The Temple invisible

For mixed choir, chimes, singing bowls and percussion.

Duration 6´30´´ 

”The Temple invisible” is a setting of the poem ”On Prayer” by the Lebanese-American writer Kahlil Gibran. ”On Prayer” is a part of the prose-poem ”The Prophet”, which is a collection of fables concerning different basic aspects of the human existence: death, marriage, love, children, et.c. ”On prayer” does not describe an act of prayer as found in the institutionalised religions, but rather a deeply personal and introverted experience. In the end of the poem, however, Gibran describes an ecstatic and almost extra-corporeal ”trip” where praying people all over the world will meet and share a mythic communion in ”The temple invisible”.

”The Temple invisible” was a commission by Brady Allred and the Salt Lake City Vocal Artists” specifically for choir and prayer bowls. The prayer bowls forms a link between the prayer af formal religion and the kind of prayer as described in the poem. The piece is in two sections: The first section, in ABA form, begins with a depiction of the vast invisible temple itself with soft chiming of prayer bowls and sustained phrases in the choir. The basses then presents the main theme, a both contemplative and expressive melody with minor/major ambiguity. The second section depicts the ecstatic ascension of the praying souls ”into the air” and appropriately uses whirly tubes (for the air) and percussion (for the ecstasy). After a final burst of exuberance, the piece ends quietly with the same image of ”the temple” as we heard in the beginning of the piece.