NICHOLSON – THE SEVENTH SEAL FOR SOLO VIOLA

The musical argument is based on the interplay of a series of sharply differentiated fragments, one of which – a toccata-like idea – acts as a refrain, appearing six times in all in various degrees of transformation. In the end it is the intrusion of the naturally tuned seventh harmonic at the climax of the piece that disrupts the musical order irreparably, since it implies, and goes on to open up, an altogether much more chaotic sound-world lying beyond the reach of the tempered pitch system.