The word numina (plural of “numen”) is a Latin term meaning “noddings”, referring in the old Roman religion to the physical gesture of a divine decree, the will of the gods passed down. As successive Roman leaders took on the status of gods on earth, the term became personified in them, more generally translatable as “presence” or “authority”.
Numina was composed for the Janus Trio in 2010 as an allegory for the authoritative abuses of Rome’s current divine authority, the Vatican. It is a public and total renouncement of an abusive institution, one catastrophically self-undermined by it’s inability to function the face of the simplest of all moral “dilemmas”: the protection of children from sexual abuse.
The physical movement of the performers over the course of the piece—from a forward-facing position, to facing inward toward the harp, to finally facing away from the audience—echoes the practice in the Roman Catholic mass of the priest turning his back to the congregation.
The Latin text is from the beginning of the Latin Mass, of baptisms, and of exorcisms. “Abrenuntia?” (Ah-bray-noon-tsee-ah) is a question asked of the congregation, meaning “Do you renounce?”. The response is “Abrenuncio!” (Ab-bray-noon-see-oh), “I renounce!”. These questions are part of a formal litany: “Abrenuntia Satanae?”, “Do you renounce Satan?”, and so on. In Numina the renouncement is generalized and total.
Numina notes, further details from the preface to the musical score.
A preview of the upcoming studio recording:
A video excerpt from the premiere:
Click here to watch a video excerpt
And, a recent performance at the 2010 Spark Festival of Electronic Music in Minneapolis, MN can be viewed here:
The physical movement of the performers over the course of the piece—from a forward-facing position, to facing inward toward the harp, to finally facing away from the audience—echoes the practice in the Roman Catholic mass of the priest turning his back to the congregation.
The Latin text is from the beginning of the Latin Mass, of baptisms, and of exorcisms. “Abrenuntia?” (Ah-bray-noon-tsee-ah) is a question asked of the congregation, meaning “Do you renounce?”. The response is “Abrenuncio!” (Ab-bray-noon-see-oh), “I renounce!”. These questions are part of a formal litany: “Abrenuntia Satanae?”, “Do you renounce Satan?”, and so on. In Numina the renouncement is generalized and total.
Numina notes, further details from the preface to the musical score.
A score for Numina is also available. It is licensed under a “Creative Commons” license, see below.
Numina Score, PDF
Numina for flute, viola, and harp by Kevin Ernste is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
