Work for Voice, Vocal Improvisation, and Electronics
Duration: 15–30 minutes
Composed for Heiða Árnadóttir and the entire sonic material of the piece is based on recordings of her voice.

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Wach chapter 3 - Dark Music days 2020 

"... at the same concert given by soprano Heiða Árnadóttir there was another such piece being premièred, Þóranna Dögg Björnsdóttir’s Þá birtist sjálfið. That title literally translates as ‘then the self appears’, but the English title provided was rather more revealing: ‘Prayer to Self’. The text is a succinct, poetic adjuration, one that doesn’t flinch from certain perceived necessities: “be a cold and clear thought / from your arctic plains / of wisdom and / strike me, punch me / cause I need it”. The first half of the work comprised a multi-channel explosion of pre-recorded gestural vocal sounds, heard as Heiða solemnly climbed the stairs of the Nordic House, slowly moving through the library to arrive in the main performance space. This disconcerting opening was answered by an altogether more transcendent second half: first speech, then chant-like singing, simple, measured, controlled but heartfelt, ultimately becoming caught up and expanded through a dense but detailed electronic soundscape. There were some distinct echoes here of Þóranna’s collaborative work LUCID, which was my best album of 2019, and Þá birtist sjálfið was similarly stunning. At once mesmerising, gorgeous and intimate, the only word I could utter following Heiða’s performance was simply “wow”. Amazing."

Simon Cummings -  5against4

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“About such a thing as that not much fuss is made in the world; for a self is the thing the world is least apt to inquire about, and the thing of all things the most dangerous for a man to let people notice that he has it. The greatest danger, that of losing one’s own self, may pass off as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, that of an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc., is sure to be noticed.“
-Søren Kierkegaard, Sygdommen til døden.

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Chapter 1 – Consciousness – (Relationship with the Self)

 – One who truly makes spiritual progress develops awareness of oneself

 –realizes one’s potential as a being of consciousness.

–The natural state of consciousness is to be bound to the sensory world, preoccupied with the objects of the world. Such consciousness is unbroken; it is not directed at itself but at its object, and loses itself in it. In this way, it cannot be spirit, because spirit is selfhood, and the self is a relation that relates itself to itself in consciousness of itself.

– A human being is spirit in the sense that they can turn their consciousness toward themselves and attain self-awareness. Therefore, a human is a task unto themselves, not merely a product of the world that confines the natural sensory consciousness to what is and thereby blocks the unique human potential of becoming oneself.

– The opposing fundamental aspects:

• soul – body,

• freedom – necessity,

• infinity – finitude.

Spirit/self appears as the third and mediating force that builds a bridge or a “synthesis” in the Hegelian sense between the opposites. Ultimately, the self then appears as a relation that relates to itself, and thus the self becomes this relation of the relation to itself.

– The self is as much a possibility as it is a necessity; it is necessary insofar as it exists, and possible insofar as it must become itself.

Text adapted from Søren Kierkegaard, translated by Vilhjálmur Árnason.
Source of quotations: https://heimspeki.hi.is/encyclopedia/tag/kierkegaard/

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Chapter 2 – Anxiety – Repetition Soothes (Lament)

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​Anxiety is eternity’s call to the temporal human being to break free from the chains of the natural state and become an individual. Anxiety is therefore not directed at any particular thing that one might be afraid of, but at the very foundation of existence itself. Anxiety is a spiritual vital sign that gives the human being hope of rising from the numbness of spiritual lifelessness into a new life.

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• Awareness of unused freedom: that one has lost oneself but can return to oneself.

• Eternity's call to the temporal human being to break free from the bonds of the natural state and become an individual.

• Directed against the very foundation of existence.

• A spiritual vital sign that gives the person hope of rising from the numbness of spiritual lifelessness into a new life.

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Chapter 3 – A Prayer to the Self (what you cannot say, you can sing)

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Symbol, backbone
clenched knot
Symbol, backbone
hear my prayer
Hear my prayer!
stretched and pulled
between the edges of myself
between my languages
speak plainly,
from the arc of your wisdom
clear and cold thought
from the polar plains
strike me, shake me
I need it
you are where the earthquake begins
the epicenter of tremors
speak plainly
despite the contradictions
even though you may be impossible
because you are me........

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