Note:

blendendes Licht

(English: Blinding Light)

The title of this piece was inspired by the closing moments of Olivier Messiaen's opera Saint François d'Assise. After St. Francis has died, "a streak of light shines on the place where St. Francis' body had been. The light grows until it becomes blinding and unbearable. The curtain falls." I watched a recording of the opera shortly before I began working on this piece, and the final visual spectacle lingered in my mind.