VWV 39 · Solo Vocal · 2026 · 5:10

Against the Dawn

Aubade — Cycle: Das Verlöschen IX

Catalogue: VWV 39
Key: F minor
Form: Aubade
Scoring: Baritone & piano
Composed: 2026
Duration: 5:10

First performed Wigmore Hall, London · 14 November 2026 — Nikolai Voss, baritone · Clara Henningsen, piano

Commissioned by Wigmore Hall

To all who keep a light burning

An inverted aubade — the morning song that grieves the dawn rather than greeting it, for daylight is the death of every small flame the cycle has tended. The piano brightens cruelly toward major as the voice darkens; the two pull apart in open expressive contradiction, the listener forced to feel the sunrise as a bereavement.

From Das Verlöschen · NV-014

On the cycle's thematic unity: The Lamp Motif →