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Radio 3\u2019s \u2018Capturing Twilight\u2019 season is an attempt to reflect the influence on the human psyche of the light that is between two worlds \u2013 neither day nor night \u2013 where nothing looks or feels quite as it should be, a shimmering anticipation of change and transformation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Twilight \u2013 whether the twilight between the end of night and the start of day or the end of day and the coming of night \u2013 has inspired or influenced artists of all kinds, from the visual arts, through poetry and prose writing to music. It\u2019s a time made for magic and creation.<\/p>\n Experiencing twilight also affects us as human beings and the way we perceive and receive music at different times in the day. So while some of the music we have been featuring on Radio 3 is explicitly reflective of twilight in terms of the composer\u2019s artistic intention, some will invoke a twilight feel in the mind of the listener \u2013 and sharing this has been a revelation to me as it made me realise the wide range of works that through the centuries have depicted or reflected in sound the mood of this special time of the day.<\/p>\n For my own twilight thoughts, a place to begin is Britten<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings<\/strong><\/a>. The opening \u2018Pastorale\u2019 has words that invoke twilight, but the musical spirit of the piece, with sparse instrumentation gradually revealing more complexity of tone and colour, and a journey toward darkness, make it something I have often turned to listen to as the light fails.<\/p>\n My Covid year has often been spent working in my shed in the garden, where in the winter especially the light fades before the window from which I look out.\u00a0 Schubert\u2019s Piano Sonata in B Flat minor, D960<\/a><\/strong> is a piece I always associate with the gloaming and the occasion for refection that brings \u2013 especially in Alfred Brendel\u2019s 1988 Philips recording.<\/p>\n The Athenaeum in Helsinki is home to some wonderful paintings, including Askeli Gallen-Kallela\u2019s scenes from the Kalevala<\/em>, that seem to take place in a brilliant half-light that invokes a world both real and magical. Many Finnish painters of that period reflect light in that special way. The music of Sibelius seems to me to often have a twilight quality about it \u2013 reflecting the light of a Finnish evening \u2013 whether it be the half light of a winter\u2019s day or of a summer\u2019s night. To me Sibelius\u2019s Fifth Symphony<\/a> is an evocation of that, as is his Lemmink\u00e4iinen Suite<\/em> \u2013 the second of which, \u2018The Swan of Tuonela\u2019 is perhaps most evocative of a kind of time and scene that makes you shiver in response to its strangeness.<\/p>\n Scandinavian music of many kinds reminds me of half light \u2013 for example, the Danish Quartet\u2019s \u2018Wood Works\u2019<\/a> contains many tunes evocative of the strange near light of long summer evenings in Norway or the Faroe Islands \u2013 it is a record I often put on as the day fades in summer.<\/p>\n Choral music, particularly that associated with Choral Evensong \u2013 always a special part of the day on Radio 3 \u2013 is highly suggestive of half light for me. Any polyphony or chant associated with Vespers reminds me of the dying light. William Mundy\u2019s Vox Patris Caelestis <\/em><\/a>is a piece of choral music I often return to at the end of the day \u2013 it is almost as if gradually the stars come out as the piece builds from little shards of light into quiet magnificence.<\/p>\n Finally, the work of the Canadian painters known as \u2018The Group of Seven\u2019 captures the half light of winter in Northern Canada in a particular way, whether in forests or lakes or further north in snowy wilderness. One piece of contemporary music which \u00a0reflects this for me is by songwriter and ambient\/soundscape artist Jonas Bonetta. His All this Here<\/a>, <\/em>recorded in a winter on the island of Fogo off Newfoundland, perfectly encapsulates through a soundscape of field recordings, cello, violin, piano and electronics a special twilight atmosphere of the North. The second track on side B, \u2018Tilting\u2019, captures this atmosphere beautifully \u2013 but the whole needs to be listened to as the light falls.<\/p>\n Light is as important in music as it is in art, and affects us profoundly as humans. Capturing Twilight on Radio 3 has been a great way to think about a special place between two worlds, one where anything can happen \u2013 and frequently does.<\/p>\n