David Massong

Alea

Alea iacta est (= The die has fallen) was said by Julius Caesar after he crossed the Rubicon with his army in 49 BC and thus triggered a war. Today, the idiom is used to express that a decision has been made and its consequences are irreversible. The word Alea comes from Latin and means dice, gambling, but also uncertainty, risk and chance. In Alea, the idea of chance, unpredictability and decisions is to be expressed and experienced. The text passages are inspired, among other things, by Caesar's words when he was faced with the decision to cross the Rubicon.
In order to allow coincidence to flow musically into David Massong's composition, the singers are to be equipped with ordinary dice, with the help of which individual voices are randomly distributed in the middle of the piece. With each roll of the dice, a new variant of music is created, reminding us that we often have no control over the direction our path takes.