Tranströmersånger

instruments alto solo and chamber ensemble; alto, clarinet, bass clarinet, mandolin, guitar, violin, viola and violoncello texts by Tomas Tranströmer from the collection Sorgegondolen (”The Sad Gondola”) movements 1. April och Tystnad 2. Tre Strofer – 3. Intermezzo I (instrumental) – 4. Tystnaden – 5. Intermezzo II (instrumental) 6. Landskap med solar year of production 2009 - 2010 dedication Carina Vinke, Christian Karlsen and New European Ensemble commissioned by New European Ensemble duration 20‘ first performance April 18 2009 Arnold Schönberg Zaal, Koninklijk Conservatorium, Den Haag, Netherlands (first version: only mov 1, 2 and 6) Carina Vinke, alto New European Ensemble Christian Karlsen, conducto work comments Tranströmersånger (”Tranströmer Settings”) (2009-10) was commissioned by and dedicated to Carina Vinke, New European Ensemble and Christian Karlsen. It was originally composed for voice and ensemble (consisting of clarinet, bass clarinet, mandolin, guitar, violin, viola and violoncello) and later set for voice and piano with the instrumental intermezzi left out. The starting point for this work was poetry from Tomas Tranströmer’s Sorgegondolen “The Sorrow Gondola” which describes an author’s inability to write. The title is derived from a piano piece by Franz Liszt called La lugubre gondola, that was composed around the time of Richard Wagner’s passing and funeral procession in the canals of Venice. The harmonic backbone is based on the same pitch material as one of my previous works for solo guitar, Arpalinea. Using the same instrumentation as in Arnold Schönberg’s Serenade op. 24, the sound world is italian and inspired by paganini’s concertante-works, which included violin and viola along with mandolin and guitar. Musically i wanted to bring out the lyric and dramatic moods in these poems where you can picture the poetic content as a ”music drama without a stage”. Tranströmersånger has been widely performed on tour with the New European Ensemble in the autumn of 2010 in Sweden, and in Holland at Pulchri Studio in The Hague and at White Crow Music Festival in Leiden. This publication is for non-commerical use. If violation of copyright, the video segment will be taken down immediately!