Nīlapaṭākā

Nīlapaṭākā is the twelfth part of the cycle Ṣoḍaśa Nityā. The work was originally written for soprano and piano, but also exists in versions for other instrumentations.

Nīlapaṭākā is one of the Nityā goddesses from the tantric tradition of Shaktism, connected with the lunar cycle. Her name refers to a sapphire banner and evokes strength, protection and inner determination.

In this cycle, Diederik Glorieux draws inspiration from historical notation practices of the Renaissance, in which individual voices were notated independently. Here too, each performer is given their own precisely written-out part, without a fixed metre that determines the whole in advance.

This results in a score in which precision and freedom coexist. Dialogue is the point of departure. The musicians freely choose from strictly notated melodic lines and, in the act of playing together, continually determine how their part relates to the others.