Terrarium
Cecilie Ore I Oslo Sinfonietta
Lichen grows on rock, bark and gravestones. In Cecilie Ore's Terrarium it grows through Oslo Sinfonietta, in twenty-one short movements.
“There is a low mist in the woods. It is a good day to study lichens.” Henry David Thoreau.
Lichens are ancient forms of life, and among the least understood. They are not plants, and not single organisms, but intimate partnerships between fungi and algae or cyanobacteria, living so closely together that they appear as one. Norway alone is home to around two thousand species.
Cecilie Ore’s Terrarium is an audiovisual work in twenty-one short movements, each one a portrait of a specific Norwegian lichen: from the vivid orange seaside sunburst to the endangered Methuselah’s beard, from the geometric patches of map lichen to script lichen, which strangely resembles handwriting on bark.
Like the lichens themselves, the music grows from entanglements between rhythms, surfaces and textures. Alongside conventional instruments, players handle kazoos, bird whistles, washboards, ocean drums and chewing gum. This sound universe extends across the ensemble, so that woodwind, brass and string become part of the same material world: a shared ecosystem of breath, friction, paper, rattling and small resonances.
Want to know more?
- Cecilie Ore was inspired by the American writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau, who describes lichens in his journals: how they brighten in damp weather, cling to bark and stone. And how, after summer and autumn have passed, “some lichenous thoughts still adhere to us.”
- Terrarium is structured so that ensembles can perform all 21 lichen movements in sequence or choose a free selection.
- Several of the lichens portrayed in Terrarium appear on Norway’s national red list of threatened species, including Methuselah’s beard, which is strongly threatened, and tiny firedot lichen, which is vulnerable.
- Terrarium was written for Oslo Sinfonietta, founded in 1986 and a leading force in Nordic contemporary music for four decades. Oslo Sinfonietta also performs in crypt_.
Still from Terrarium (2026). Photo: Håkon Holien
Still from Terrarium (2026). Photo: Einar Timdal
Still from Terrarium (2026). Photo: Håkon Holien
Still from Terrarium (2026). Photo: Håkon Holien
Cecilie Ore. Photo: Ingeborg Norshus
Music and Concept
- Cecilie Ore
Text
- Paal-Helge Haugen
- English translation by Annabelle Despard
Video
- Torbjørn Ljunggren
Conductor
- Christian Eggen
Oslo Sinfonietta
- Anne-Karine Hauge, flute and alto flute
- Espen Aas, clarinet
- TBA, saxophone
- Rolf Borch, bass clarinet
- Odd Nilsen og Jørgen Arnesen, trumpet
- Julius Pranevičius, horn
- Sverre Riise, trombone
- Berger Iver Færder, tuba
- Kjell Tore Innervik og Håkon Stene, percussion
- Ingvild Habbestad og Janina Kronberger, violin
- Bendik Foss, viola
- Inga Byrkjeland, cello
- Håkon Thelin, double bass
In collaboration with
- Prof. Einar Timdal at the Natural History Museum in Tøyen
- Prof. emeritus Håkon Holien at Nord University in Steinkjer
Supported by
- Norsk Kulturfond
- Norwegian Fund for Sound and Image
- Norwegian Society of Composers
- Ingerid, Synnøve og Elias Fegerstens stiftelse for norske komponister og utøvende musikere
- The Norwegian Composers’ Fund
- The Lyric Writers Fund
Produced by
- Oslo Sinfonietta
