The Library of Babel

Hear the sound of music reverberating throughout Archer Library!  Join us for the University of Regina New Music Ensemble’s presentation of

The Library of Babel

In the Archer Library Stairwell

Friday, March 20, 2020 at 2:00 p.m.

The Library of Babel is a work by Canadian composer Jordan Nobles, based on the book by Jorge Luis Borges.

The University of Regina New Music Ensemble is under the direction of Helen Pridmore. The Library of Babel consists of 9 players who will be performing in the Archer stairwell, situated at different levels. The audience is encouraged to view the performance on the various floors of Archer Library outside of the stairwells.

Composer’s notes on the work: The Library of Babel is inspired by the short story by Argentine author (and librarian) Jorge Luis Borges. In the story the characters live in a universe in the form of an infinite library. Each room of this library contains shelves of books with a seemingly random series of letters. It is theorized that the endless collection of books would contain every possible combination of letters, therefore every work ever written, and everything that ever could be written, including, somewhere, the index to the library itself. While my work is somewhat more finite it does have a series of melodic cells to be performed at the musician’s discretion which are taken from an actual melody that never reveals itself.