Commission to Dániel Péter Biró

Supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the American Society has commissioned composer Dániel Péter Biró to create a new work for choir and electronics inspired by Guillaume Dufay’s L’homme armé. Following rehearsals in Paris and a workshop in Bergen, the piece will premiere in New York in June 2026.

Titled Katuv BaSefer (Inscribed in the Book), the work will be performed by the vocal ensemble Meridionalis and the SWR Experimentalstudio. Drawing on Jewish, Islamic, French, and Latin texts—including those found in L’homme armé—the piece explores the intertwined histories of Jewish, Islamic, and Christian musical traditions through Biró’s method of “sonorous archaeology”—the uncovering the layered cultural meanings of sound.

Katuv BaSefer integrates verses from the Book of Daniel and the Surah Al-Baqarah, including rarely chanted Jewish te’amim, still practiced by a community now based in Brooklyn. Currently a Visiting Scholar at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, Biró is conducting fieldwork with members of both the Syrian Jewish and Muslim communities. He will use computational ethnomusicology techniques to transcribe and incorporate recordings of the te’amim into the composition.

Further Information:
as-coa.org

Dates

June 5, 2027
University Aula in Bergen

June 13, 2027
St. Peter’s Church, New York