Hot on the heels of the success of my short story opera, The Loving Mother, comes two new digital single releases next week on several major worldwide streaming services, with a third single to come later this summer!
The digital releases next week coincide with Nordic music publisher Gehrmans releasing the scores for both works nationally and worldwide, as well as going out to their score subscribers throughout Sweden.
Earlier this spring, I recorded three of my choral works with Höga Kusten Vokalensemble (High Coast Vocal Ensemble) and conductor David Wahlén. I have been planning for this release since last autumn, coordinating with the score publisher and the ensemble, as well as my audio engineer and dear friend, Sebastian Lönberg.
Finally, all the pieces are slowly falling into place. These are my first new recordings in a rather long time, and I am thrilled to finally share them with the world.
The two works released next week are O vos omnes (“O, you all”), a short motet for Holy Week, and Det finns en väg till himmelen (“There is a path to Heaven”), a four-part arrangement of a beloved hymn in the Swedish hymnal. Later this summer, possibly late August, the release cycle concludes with Pie pellicane, Jesu Domine (“Good Pelican, Lord Jesus”) which I composed for a choral composition competition organised by the Finzi Trust.
I wrote O vos omnes back in 2020 and premiered it that same year in Härnösand Cathedral with three dear friends and colleagues as a quartet. The text is adapted from a passage in Lamentations in the Bible. It has since been performed several more times in that format. This recording is with a 15-voice vocal ensemble, an excellent middle-ground between soloistic voices and a large choir.
Det finns en väg till himmelen is more recent; I wrote it for a concert where I conducted the Härnösand Cathedral Choir back in June 2023 – almost exactly two years ago, in fact. The hymn is based on a traditional Swedish melody, with lyrics by 20th century poet and author Bo Setterlind.
I wanted to give the two often most-overlooked voices each their time in the spotlight, so in the first two verses the altos and basses, respectively, take the melody to a wordless accompaniment by the other voices. I also wanted to experiment with the song’s metre: The first two and the last two verses respectively put the stress in different places, slightly changing the feel of the music as well as how the text is conveyed.
Compare the first verse, as shown above, with the stress placed one quarter note earlier than in the third verse, shown below. I believe you don’t need an intellectual understanding of the finer points of music composition to appreciate the added nuance this adds to the piece. The first two verses are slower, a little more mellow, with a bit more heaviness to the music from the stress coming so early in each phrase. The last two verses are more brisk, with the later stress adding to the sense of direction in the music.
My principal inspiration for O vos omnes was the sacred motets of Swedish 20th century composer Sven-Erik Bäck, many of which I have sung several times with different choirs and that I hold in very high regard. I admire Bäck’s combination of melodicism, elegant vocal part-writing, and suggestive harmonic language that make his a cappella motets in particular evocative and musically rich.
Both Det finns en väg till himmelen and O vos omnes will be available next week for streaming and/or purchase from the following digital services (in alphabetical order): Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, Tidal, and YouTube Music. Also, on Monday, Gehrmans will start taking orders for the scores to both works. Check Gehrmans’ website for order information and look for the two songs on your digital music service of choice next week!
