Un Grand Sommeil Noir

Un Grand Sommeil Noir
Video: Julie Rafalski (2006)
Music: Marta Ptaszynska (1977), for soprano, flute and harp
10min

Composer Marta Ptaszynska wrote the music to the text of Paul Verlaine's poem with the eponymous title in 1977. Julie Rafalski created the video to this piece almost 30 years later. The video portrays a fragmentary view of a reproduction of Caspar David Friedrich's painting, Abtei im Eichwald (Abbey in the Oakwood) from 1810. The video presents a stationery shot for the duration of the piece; the light changes and grows darker imperceptibly throughout, erasing the image of the painting by the end with darkness.