• For solo soprano, organ and wind instruments (organ, 1 oboe, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets and 3 trombones)

• Duration: 9'
• In 1 movement
• Composed in 1996
• First performance: 20.11.96 Singapore Wind Symphony conducted by R Casteels Victoria Concert Hall (Singapore)
• Full score: ISMN: 979-0-9016500-4-6
• Parts: To rent the parts, please email <rc@robertcasteels.com>

Brahms’ motet Warum ist das Licht uns gegeben has long haunted Robert Casteels. For family and professional reasons, the composer was exposed to six languages. The biblical verses from Job 3, 20-23 meander through just as many languages. Same words acquire different nuances in each language, conferring far reaching and varying emotional coloration. After an outburst of the organ, seven relentless waves crash towards the middle section where the lone voice of the soprano gradually utters the philosophical question. The next section quotes the Kyrie of Bruckner’s Mass No. 2 in E minor. Music starts where text stops. Without wanting to impose a presumptuous answer to the question, the coda does offer an answer, albeit a purely harmonic one. The first performance of Warum ist das Licht for solo soprano, organ and wind instruments took place in 1996 in the Victoria Concert Hall, Singapore.