Descent from Mount Sinai (Sistine Chapel) shows more episodes at the same time; the theme is described by the inscription on the frieze "PROMULGATIO LEGIS SCRIPTE PER MOISEM. In" ("Promulgation of the Written Law through Moses"). In the upper part is Moses kneeling on Mount Sinai, with a sleeping Joshua nearby: he receives the Tables of the Law from Yahweh, who appears in a luminescent cloud, surrounded by angels. In the foreground, on the left, Moses brings the Tables to the Israelites. In the background is camp of tents, with the altar of the golden calf in the middle; the Israelites, spurred by Aaron, are adoring
The Teacher Who Was Not To Be had been admitted to the Norwegian Society of Composers. Thommessen, born in 1946, is known as an atonal modernist composer and a representative of the generation of composers who became active in the 1970s, whereas Paus, born in 1979, is a noted representative of a reorientation toward tradition, tonality and melody, who once described himself as a "cultural conservative non-modernist." The monologue is emblematic of the generation gap among older Norwegian atonal modernist composers and the younger generation of composers, who are more open to other, including traditional, musical styles. Thommessen had previously been Paus' teacher at the Norwegian Academy