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INNOCENT MIND AND MAYDAY

INNOCENT MIND AND MAYDAY

Piece Of Mind, Kopi

Juliana Hodkinson: The Abiding Mind for String Quartet (Study Score)

Written for the Cailin Quartet, Copenhagen. Commissioned by the Academy of Fine Arts (Akademiet for de Skonne Kunster) with funds provided by Statens Kunstfond.First performed at the Academy's annual commemoration, 31st March 2000, in Charlottenborg, Copenhagen.First public concert performance: Ice Carving festival, Melbourne, 28th October 2000.

Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: Traffic (Score)

Preface / Programme NoteTRAFFIC is indebted to Satie, Varese and Spike Jones. Havingthe title in mind you will hardly be surprised to hear a sometimeschaotic music. Surviving contemporary metropolitan traffic is aquestion of your position ? standing, walking, running or sitting.And survival is also a question of being aware of ? and keepingyour eyes and ears open for ? the hidden rules and regulations,systems and structures.Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, 2009

Jean Sibelius: Five Characteristic Impressions Op.103 No.1 - The Village Church

The Piano music of Jean Sibelius ranks among the greatest of Finnish music, and his 1924 set Five Charactereistic Impressions demonstrates his importance. The first of this set, The Village Church is a ceremonial theme bringing to mind the oaccasions and events that surround a small place of worship and that is perfect for ushering in the start of a programme. An impressionist piece that captures the imagery of reality with tonality, colour and a solemn pace.

Infinite Reception

The is book attempts to give an overview of the works of Per Nørgård and examines the relationship between his musical thought and the corresponding completed compositions. Some works are examined in detail while others are onlybriefly mentioned and always with the question in mind: Where can an educated listener find written information on the available recorded works? To this purpose, much of the written material about Nørgård’s music and many CDrecordings t'o this date have been researched. Many grateful thanks to all authors who contributed in one way or another to this book.

Niels Marthinsen: Two Resurrections (Score And Part)

Two Resurrections for Violin and Piano, composed by Niels Marthinsen in 2015. Dedicated Signe Madsen and Erik Kaltoft. Programme note: Resurrection is the act of bringing something back to practise, notice, use or vibrancy - never mind raising the dead.I've brought new life to two forgotten works of mine by subtly merging them into each other and touching them up with 20 extra years of craftmanship.So they're reworked; reimagined - but still a Blast from the Past: I've remained true to the way we used to do it back in the 90ties.(Niels Marthinsen)

Niels Rosing-Schow: Voix Interieures (Score)

Work for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano. The composer writes: VOIX INTERIEURES (1990-92). The title has a double reference: to the ?inner voices? of the mind, expressing our (hardly conscious) impulses, feelings, dreams and to the ?inner voices? of the music in the sense of internal parts and relations. Thus the title points to the obscure reflections of the ones in the others. During the piece, there is a gradual transformation of the internal parts, such as interval patterns, sonorities and dynamics - running alongside the easily perceptible expansion of register. The music is so to say ?turned inside out?.

Niels Rosing-Schow: Voix Interieures (Parts)

Work for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano. The composer writes: VOIX INTERIEURES (1990-92). The title has a double reference: to the ?inner voices? of the mind, expressing our (hardly conscious) impulses, feelings, dreams and to the ?inner voices? of the music in the sense of internal parts and relations. Thus the title points to the obscure reflections of the ones in the others. During the piece, there is a gradual transformation of the internal parts, such as interval patterns, sonorities and dynamics - running alongside the easily perceptible expansion of register. The music is so to say ?turned inside out?.

Carl Nielsen: Humoresque-Bagatelles Op.11 (Critical Edition)

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) was a Danish musician, often seen as his country’s greatest composer, who now occupies a distinguished platform in the national and cultural heritage of his native Denmark. The Carl Nielsen Edition is an independent project which aims to publish all of his finished works, in the version last approved by the composer. The Humoresque-Bagatelles (Op.11) is a collection of six pieces for solo Piano. They were written in 1897, presumably with his own children in mind, and they depict various scenes of children playing. They form an entertaining, light-hearted set of works, and this new edition will allow them to be enjoyed by many more generations to come.

Norgard 3 Hymniske Ansatser Satb

3 Hymniske Ansatser (3 Hymnic Dispositions) for mixed choir SATB was composed by Per Nørgård in 1985-86. The work consists of music composed to 3 poems, e.g.  Gunnar Ekelöf ´Komposition (Composition),  Thøger Larsen ´Strandvalmue´(´Beach Poppy´)  Rainer Maria Rilke ´Die Parke´(´The Parks´)    Programme note Just as the three movements in their succession move from the sea (Ekelöf), across the beach (Larsen) and into the country, to the parks (Rilke), in an analogous way each of the three movements in their point of departure is hymnic in character - but later on moves into the more varied and complex tone paths of the inner regions of the mind.  3 Hymniske Ansatser (3 Hymnic Dispositions) is sung in Swedish (1. Komposition”, Gunnar Ekelöf), in Danish (2. Strandvalmue”, Thøger Larsen) and in German (3. “Die Parke”, R.M. Rilke). The work could be performed in a programme with 'Prelude to Breaking', performed after this instrumental piece.  Per Nørgård 

Bent Sørensen: String Quartet No.3 'Angel's Music' (Parts)

Score available: KP00250 The composer writes:'Even when I was writing "Adieu", I knew that I wished to write "Angel?s Music". The title existed in an incomplete form in my mind and gradually more and more ideas and a few outlines became clear. The actual work on "Angel?s Music" was started in Rome, where I spent the autumn of 1987 staying at "The Danish Academy". Whether this stay has influenced the quartet or not is impossible to say. however, it is true to say that, in the Roman churches I visited, I saw countless angels playing in the top of frescoes and altars. Without these angels, together with the many crackled-gold paintings in this city and my general fascination with the Italian renaissance painter Fra Angelico, (in fact there are only a few paintings by him in Rome, but even his name..!) I am not sure my quartet would have been what it is. Anyway I do feel that there is a bit of Italy in the piece. The angels apart there are, in the short rhythmic agitating part of the quartet, reminiscences of the Italian medieval Trotto dance, and in the most expressive part of the piece there are flashes of Puccini-like music. From the very beginning of my work on the quartet, the distant, extremely muted sound in the high register which opens the piece, was on my mind. A sound satiated with a dense heterophonic and polyphonic texture of elegiac melody and vibrating trills. I imagined that "little songs" (maybe angel songs) could be created in this density, these songs constantly echoing themselves. Gradually as this sound got a more and more concrete musical and instrumental form, I felt, that not only should the "little songs" be created, played and die out in an echo, but also that the general pattern of the quartet should give the feeling of music which, from the distance, is getting closer and closer, culminates and at last disappears like an echo. Related to this, the general pattern of "Angel?s Music" is divided into three: a pre-echo, culmination and echo.. The relationship between the three part is 5: 6: 4. The reason why I can say this precisely and prosaically is that it was necessary to me to mark the overall guidelines before I started to compose. I had to do this in order to enable the relationships to crawl from the general pattern almost fractionally into the smallest cells of the music, or more correctly; crawl from the small cells into the general pattern.'

Alapa-tarana Op.41

Alapa-Tarana Op.41 for Mezzo-Soprano and Percussion was composed by Poul Rovsing Olsen in 1959. Programme note:I was encouraged by the singer Jolanda Rodio to write a piece for mezzo-soprano and percus­sion. In my mind the idea immediately awoke associations of Indian or Arab music, in which the combination of drums together with either an instrument or voice is very common. In a solo performance (as opposed to choral and ensemble performances) the piece is called a "raga" or a "macam". A "raga" or "macam" is a scale and at the same time a number of melodic formulas. Further­ more, it is a spiritual concept, a specific "raga" or "macam" expressing a specific emotion. My piece is not based on any traditional Indian "raga" or Arab "macam". The "raga" in my piece is entirely my own invention. The title is derived from Indian music, an ''Alapa" being the first, unaccompanied part of a "raga". Traditionally, in the "Alapa" the characteristics of the "raga" are first presented improvisationally, without strict metre, followed by a section in which the drums set in. The latter can have various forms. I have chosen a variation form called "Tarana". (Poul Rovsing Olsen 1960)

Poul Ruders: Nightshade (Full Score)

Ruders writes: NIGHTSHADE is an instrumental dark-room, a grave-yard of low-pitched, tight-knitted, crawling chords sliced asunder by the cold extremely high positioned movements of the oboe and violin in particular: tones sustained to near-immobility and then scared into startling velocity, like geckoes on a Southern garden wall. Shades in the night are pale and gloomy phenomenons to behold; treacherous beauties in the mighty realm of invisibility and blackness. Belladonna (beautiful lady) is the morbid christening of that fearsome variety of flora: the deadly nightshade. The piece is, on one hand, a study in extreme sonorities; the infrequently used contrabass clarinet is being employed along with the contra-bassoon, forming the ultra-low foundation of the score and the bottom-register of the French horn and the trombone is set against the serene clarity of high violin and oboe. On the other hand, the piece is a tone-poem of sorts, on the various associations as they form within the mind of the individual listener when confronted with the very word NIGHTSHADE. Personally, I come to think of pale moonlight, tombstones, the compelling as well as frightening spell of a dark forest. A Study in black the piece has been called.

Bent Sørensen: Lullabies

Bent SørensenLULLABIESfor piano2000Preface / Programme NoteSome melodies keep haunting me; they will stick in my mind, and I will walk abouthumming them, and they will find their way into my music.Two such melodies are the basis for the present piano piece, which I callLULLABIES. The first little tune began its life as a ballad in an operatic draft ofmine. Later on ? with text by English poet Selima Hill ? it became part of my songcycle ROSES ARE FALLING for mezzo soprano and piano. In the latter context itis a love song, but I have always had a lullaby-feeling about this tune, and, indeed,as a lullaby it appears in my opera UNDER THE SKY, to text by Peter Asmussen; inthe opera, the loved one sings and hums to her beloved and make him come to rest.During LULLABIES the tune will appear a half tone lower with each entry, andmake its way downwards through the musical texture, from upper voice to bassline.The other little melody is a true lullaby, which I hummed for my youngest daughterto try and make her go to sleep. Later on it became the backdrop for the last movementof my trombone concerto, BIRDS AND BELLS.The two melodies in their original form are reproduced at the beginning ofLULLABIES.Bent Sørensen, 2000

Poul Ruders: Paganini Variations- Guitar Concerto No.2

Ruders writes: There's a solid tradition in the history of Western music of turning the theme of Nicolo Paganini's "24th Caprice" for soloviolin into a set of variations endemic to the time and style of each individual composer; Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninov and Lutoslawsky being the most prominent names. When asked by David Starobin to write a concerto for him, I though "well, why not have a go at it?" - bearing in mind, that not only is Paganini the most celebrated violin-wizard of all times, but he was also a more than accomplished guitarist. There are 22 variations in all, numbers 1 to 16 all adhering strictly to the 16-bar pattern, laid down by Paganini himself. From variation 17 though, the writing becomes more symphonic and the rigid 16-bar regime is being lossendes up a bit. However, the last variation 'Finale Prestisimo' is a 6 x 16 bars "white-knuckle ride", in which the hitherto soloistic role of the guitar gives way to that of 'primus interpares', i.e. 'first among equals'. As with another set of variations of mine 'Concerto on Pieces' (based on a tune by Purcell), the nature and shape of the 'Pagannini-Variations' may be compared to a stroll through a hall of mirrors: the "portrait" - the theme is gradually being distorted out of all recognition - but it's still the same "original" walking by.

Per Nørgård: String Quartet No.10 - Harvest-Timeless (parts)

Programme Note During the composition of my tenth string quartet a flower-name, høst-tidløs, came to my mind - and it would not me leave again. [høsttidløs is actually autumn crocus in English, but the composer prefers harvest-timeless, to maintain some of the associations of the Danish flower-name, red.] The paradoxical union of a seasonal time (harvest) and no-time-at-all was a good fit to the sections of the work that I had composed at that time, and I decided to tentatively stick to that title for the work-in-progress, and now, having finished the piece, I can say that is is still a fitting title - and it stands. Enough about the title, I will go on to describe the music, a somewhat more precarious project. My tenth string quartet is probably the most basic string quartet that I have composed; melodically - and in sound - it employs the naturally based overtones and undertones* (perceived at major and minor, respectively), and rhythmically it is based on growth, on the principles of the Golden Section, and the structure itself contrasts abundance and exuberance with sections of immobility and contemplation. However, Melos, melody, is definitely the dominating aspect of my STRING QUARTET NO. 10; behind even the most rhythmically complex or pure sonoric sections lies a firm - if hidden - basis of melodic or polyphonic ideas. The work was composed in 2004-2005 for the Kroger Quartet.

Per Nørgård: String Quartet No.10 - Harvest-Timeless (score)

Programme Note During the composition of my tenth string quartet a flower-name, høst-tidløs, came to my mind - and it would not me leave again. [høsttidløs is actually autumn crocus in English, but the composer prefers harvest-timeless, to maintain some of the associations of the Danish flower-name, red.] The paradoxical union of a seasonal time (harvest) and no-time-at-all was a good fit to the sections of the work that I had composed at that time, and I decided to tentatively stick to that title for the work-in-progress, and now, having finished the piece, I can say that is is still a fitting title - and it stands. Enough about the title, I will go on to describe the music, a somewhat more precarious project. My tenth string quartet is probably the most basic string quartet that I have composed; melodically - and in sound - it employs the naturally based overtones and undertones* (perceived at major and minor, respectively), and rhythmically it is based on growth, on the principles of the Golden Section, and the structure itself contrasts abundance and exuberance with sections of immobility and contemplation. However, Melos, melody, is definitely the dominating aspect of my STRING QUARTET NO. 10; behind even the most rhythmically complex or pure sonoric sections lies a firm - if hidden - basis of melodic or polyphonic ideas. The work was composed in 2004-2005 for the Kroger Quartet.

Voyages Extraordinaires

A work for orchestra commissioned by Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. The composer writes "I have borrowed the title 'Voyages extraordinaires' from the writer Jules Verne and his famous novel series depicting fantastic or in reality impossible journeys. The title seemed fitting as my work is intended as fantastical musical voyages on which the listener encounters new worlds of sound through recurring orchestral transformations. I see the work somewhat as a tribute to how art has the abilities to transcend the limits of life. Some years ago I composed a horn trio, 'Diagonal Musik' (2017), inspired by the Swedish artist Olle Baertling. Baertling’s paintings consist of large, brighttriangular shapes, and although the lines gradually approach one another, the intersecting point is often placed outside the frame. Consequently, the spectator will try to complete the angle in their own head. In my horn trio, I wanted to transfer this to music: the lines that gradually approach each other but rarely meet, except perhaps in the listener’s head. In 'Voyage Extraordinaires' I have tried to develop these techniques even further, this time for orchestral forces, and combine them with the magical transformations, an important structural element of the piece. The fantastic journeys also refer to travels in our own imagination: what we believe and picture in our mind. The sudden musical transformations that occur are also reminiscent of dream logic and the dreamscape itself. Here it is possible to wander in and out through worlds in a way that feels consistent within the framework of the dream." A work for orchestra commissioned by Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. The composer writes "I have borrowed the title 'Voyages extraordinaires' from the writer Jules Verne and his famous novel series depicting fantastic or in reality impossible journeys. The title seemed fitting as my work is intended as fantastical musical voyages on which the listener encounters new worlds of sound through recurring orchestral transformations. I see the work somewhat as a tribute to how art has the abilities to transcend the limits of life. Some years ago I composed a horn trio, 'Diagonal Musik' (2017), inspired by the Swedish artist Olle Baertling. Baertling’s paintings consist of large, brighttriangular shapes, and although the lines gradually approach one another, the intersecting point is often placed outside the frame. Consequently, the spectator will try to complete the angle in their own head. In my horn trio, I wanted to transfer this to music: the lines that gradually approach each other but rarely meet, except perhaps in the listener’s head. In 'Voyage Extraordinaires' I have tried to develop these techniques even further, this time for orchestral forces, and combine them with the magical transformations, an important structural element of the piece. The fantastic journeys also refer to travels in our own imagination: what we believe and picture in our mind. The sudden musical transformations that occur are also reminiscent of dream logic and the dreamscape itself. Here it is possible to wander in and out through worlds in a way that feels consistent within the framework of the dream."

Denmark Revisited - Danish Choral Works (CD)

Denmark Revisited - Danish choral works for mixed voices a cappella. The University Choir Lille MUKO and soprano Else Torp, conducted by Jesper Grove Jørgensen. For many years now there has been a broad international interest in performing Danish choral works, not least from the 20th century, but often the Danish lyrics have been a hindrance in realising this goal outside Denmark. With this in mind we have thought it important to make Danish choral music more available through the release of selected works in which the Danish text is translated into English. With the present choice we have endeavoured to present works which fully demonstrate the wide range and originality of Danish choral music: the particular, lyrical Danish tone of Svend S. Schultz and Jørgen Jersild; the original simplicity of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen; the characteristically Danish late romanticism of P.E. Lange-Müller and Rued Langgaard; and the music of composers with their own particular musical idiom, such as Vagn Holmboe, Bernhard Lewkovitch, and Bo Holten. We have also tried to choose works with lyrics by writers that are specifically Danish in origin, including Hans Christian Andersen, Johannes V. Jensen, and Tove Ditlevsen. We hope that this release will help to spread knowledge and understanding of Danish choral music outside Denmark. (Jesper Grove Jørgensen) Content P. E. Lange-Müller: 3 Madonna Songs Rued Langgaard: 3 Rosengaard Songs Svend S. Schultz: Denmark Revisited Vagn Holmboe: Songs Towards the Deep of Spring, op. 85 Jørgen Jersild: Three Danish Love Songs Bernhard Lewkovitch: 3 Motets, op. 11 Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: 6 Simple Danish Songs Bo Holten: Rain and Rush and Rosebush

Norgard P Two Nocturner Satb

To Nocturner (2001) - for Chamber Choir (12 or 24 Voices). Texts by Ole Sarvig and Ib Michael. English version available: KP01444E Programme note: These two choral pieces for 12 voices consists of radical recompositions on of earlier themes: in Summer's Sleep we hear new combinations of two 'Sarvig melodies' from the 1970s (one of which is now in the Danish Hymnbook under the title "Året", The Year); Michael's Night is based on an earlier, simple choral song (Star Mirror,1987), now for 12 voices and composed such that an original idea of "simultaneously displaced, opposite motions" cf. the poem) comes out as desired. Of the Nocturnes Nørgård writes: "Summer's Sleep was composed to stanzas of Ole Sarvig's poem The Year (from the collection Forstadsdigte ('Suburban Poems')) and forms the picture of "the summer of life", which is asleep - while the "heaven seed" waits for the summer wind ("invisible to every mind"). The many layers of text are expressed musically in a multilayered choral texture with 'looks' up and down through the various tempo and time-worlds: summer sleep, summer dream. "The second nocturne, Michael's Night, takes its name from the author Ib Michael, whose poem Star Mirror (from the collection Himmelbegravelse ('Sky Funeral') (1986) I pushed/coaxed him to expand from one to nine stanzas. The four selected stanzas set in the nocturne focus on the pan-erotic elements of the moonlit, starlit night. With the titles I have chosen I have stressed the mythic layer of the text, the summer night not as a dream but as sensual reality. "The two nocturnes are dedicated to Ivan Hansen on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday on 25th February 2003, out of gratitude for over a quarter of a century of inspiring collaboration".

Denmark Revisited - Danish Choral Works (SATB)

Denmark Revisited - Danish choral works for mixed voices a cappella. Edited by Jakob Faurholt and Jesper Grove Jørgensen. Transl. by Edward Broadbridge and Mikael Gjesing. The present release contains a number of Danish choral works with Danish lyrics translated into English. For many years now there has been a broad international interest in performing Danish choral works, not least from the 20th century, but often the Danish lyrics have been a hindrance in realising this goal outside Denmark. With this in mind we have thought it important to make Danish choral music more available through the release of selected works in which the Danish text is translated into English. With the present choice we have endeavoured to present works which fully demonstrate the wide range and originality of Danish choral music: the particular, lyrical Danish tone of Svend S. Schultz and Jørgen Jersild; the original simplicity of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen; the characteristically Danish late romanticism of P.E. Lange-Müller and Rued Langgaard; and the music of composers with their own particular musical idiom, such as Vagn Holmboe, Bernhard Lewkovitch, and Bo Holten. We have also tried to choose works with lyrics by writers that are specifically Danish in origin, including Hans Christian Andersen, Johannes V. Jensen, and Tove Ditlevsen. Finally, we have at all times been aware of the musical degree of difficulty, so that the collection contains both easily approachable works as well as relatively complex ones. We hope that this release will help to spread knowledge and understanding of Danish choral music outside Denmark and thus offer the opportunity to expand the current choral repertoire that many choirs have wished. (Jesper Grove Jørgensen)   Contents P. E. Lange-Müller: 3 Madonna Songs Rued Langgaard: 3 Rosengaard Songs Svend S. Schultz: Denmark Revisited Vagn Holmboe: Songs Towards the Deep of Spring, op. 85 Jørgen Jersild: Three Danish Love Songs Bernhard Lewkovitch: 3 Motets, op. 11 Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: 6 Simple Danish Songs Bo Holten: Rain and Rush and Rosebush  

Hans Abrahamsen: Left, Alone (Piano Solo)

Left, Alone for Piano (left hand) and Orchestra was composed by Hans Abrahamsen in 2014-15. Commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk and co-commissioned by City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Premiered by the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Alexandre Tharaud (piano) concducted by Ilan Volkov on January 29, 2016, Cologne. Programme Note: I was born with a right hand that is not fully functional, and though it never prevented me from loving playing the piano as well as I could with this physical limitation, it has obviously given me an alternative focus on the whole piano literature and has given me a close relationship with the works written for the left hand by Ravel and others. This repertoire has been with me since my youth. My very first public performance of one of my own works was in autumn 1969. The piece was called October and I played the piano with my left hand and the horn, my principal instrument (the only instrument that can be played with only the left hand). Part of the piece requires the performer to play natural harmonics of the horn directly into the open strings of the grand piano to create resonance. The pedal was kept down by an assistant lying on the floor. Through decades the idea of writing a larger work for piano left hand has been in my mind. This new work is not written for a pianist with only one hand, but rather by a composer who can only play with the left hand. The title Left, alone contains all kinds of references, not only to the obvious fact that the left hand is playing alone. Left, alone is divided into two large parts, each consisting of three smaller movements – in effect, six in total. The work was commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk, and co-commissioned by City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic and written for Alexandre Tharaud. Hans Abrahamsen, 2015

Hans Abrahamsen: Left, Alone (Score)

Left, Alone for Piano (left hand) and Orchestra was composed by hans Abrahamsen in 2014-15. Commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk and co-commissioned by City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Premiered by the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Alexandre Tharaud (piano) concducted by Ilan Volkov on January 29, 2016, Cologne. Programme Note: I was born with a right hand that is not fully functional, and though it never prevented me from loving playing the piano as well as I could with this physical limitation, it has obviously given me an alternative focus on the whole piano literature and has given me a close relationship with the works written for the left hand by Ravel and others. This repertoire has been with me since my youth.My very first public performance of one of my own works was in autumn 1969. The piece was called October and I played the piano with my left hand and the horn, my principal instrument (the only instrument that can be played with only the left hand). Part of the piece requires the performer to play natural harmonics of the horn directly into the open strings of the grand piano to create resonance. The pedal was kept down by an assistant lying on the floor.Through decades the idea of writing a larger work for piano left hand has been in my mind. This new work is not written for a pianist with only one hand, but rather by a composer who can only play with the left hand. The title Left, alone contains all kinds of references, not only to the obvious fact that the left hand is playing alone. Left, alone is divided into two large parts, each consisting of three smaller movements – in effect, six in total. The work was commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk, and co-commissioned by City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic and written for Alexandre Tharaud. Hans Abrahamsen, 2015

Per Nørgård: Tributes - Album For Strings (Score)

Programnote TRIBUTES - ALBUM FOR STRINGS (1994-95)I: FOUR OBSERVATIONS ? FROM AN INFINTE RAPPORT ? hommage a Bartok (1995)II: OUT OF THIS WORLD ? hommage a Lutoslawski (1994)III: VOYAGE INTO THE BROKEN SCREEN - hommage a Sibelius (1995)Please notice that Per Nørgård wrote 2 programme notes for the work.You may use what might be useful for the concert.SHORT VERSION: ?TRIBUTES ? album for strings? (1994-95) includes three hommages, which might also be performed separately.The shared point of departure was the hommage to three major composers of the 20th century ? Bartok, Lutoslawski and Sibelius.In FOUR OBSERVATIONS the hommage is to Bartok (on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death 1995). Hungarian Radio asked me to write a piece in his honor, but apart from the very last unison string figure , which is - I think - very Bartokian, the work in no way intends to evoke, even less to imitate, the musical style of the great Hungarian master. This would be an act of impudence against a composer who was such an exceptionally integrated personality, and who has himself shown (in 'Mikrokosmos') the worthy way to pay a personal tribute to highly respected colleagues: In 'Hommage á J.S.B.' and 'Hommage à R. Sch.' Bela Bartok composes in his own manner but lets the music reflect some qualities of the said composers, as perceived in Bartok's mind. In a similar way my 'Observations from an infinite Rapport' reflects as well the timeless proportions of the 'golden section' - which seem to have inspired Bartok so much, - in his great respect for perceptive, structural patterns. "OUT OF THIS WORLD" was composed at the request of a group of Lutoslawski's friends, as a symbol of parting to a great composer and a noble man. The title quotes a poem by Yunus Emre, the Turkish 14th century poet. The opening line of the poem 'Biz dünyadan' reads as follows in English translation: 'We are on the way out of this world, we send our greetings to those left behind...'"VOYAGE INTO THE BROKEN SCREEN" is a hommage to Sibelius. The title refers to my 27 years older work, in which the title-ending 'into the golden Screen' suggests a blank surface. Here the 'broken screen' refers to the multilayered 'broken' harmonic partials, quasi-chaotic in their rhythmic multiplicity of golden proportions. In Sibelius' music I've always admired the unique sense of the 'natural sound', the harmonic partials among others.This concluding movement of my "Book for Strings" was composed as a dedication to Juha Kangas, the leader of the Easter Bothnic Chamber Orchestra - on the occasion of his 50th birthday in November 1995.The total duration of "Tributes, Album for Strings": appr. 18 min. (5 min. ? 7 min. ? 5 min.)Per Nørgård----LONGER VERSION:"TRIBUTES ? album for strings? (1994-95) includes three hommages, which might also be performed separately.The shared point of departure was the hommage to three major composers of the 20th century ? Bartok, Lutoslawski and Sibelius.My ?Tributes? has a somewhat ?cool? attitude, motivated by the reasons for their creation.But how can a composer make a real tribute to a colleague without falling in the pit of ´pale pastiche production´?My answer to the question was expressed in the comment to the first tribute ?Four observations ? from an infinite rapport? ? to Bela Bartok ? a commission from the Hungarian radio to commemorate the 5oth year of his death: the way that Bartok himself musically showed his