Tomorrow, the ensemble that I recorded three of my choral works with earlier this year is giving a concert in lovely Arnäs Church, north of Örnsköldsvik. Come listen to a delightful programme, including the first performance of my motet Pie pellicane, Jesu Domine!
At the recording session, I sat with the audio engineer as a producer, but this week I actually get to sing with the ensemble instead, which is much more fun. I have sung with this ensemble, Höga Kusten Vokalensemble (the High Coast Vocal Ensemble) several times in the past and have known David Wahlén, their conductor, since college.
It was an easy choice to record my pieces with them, for their excellent musicianship most of all, but also for the camaraderie in the ensemble as well as to give them a chance for more national recognition. They perform at least once or twice a year in the High Coast region but are still unknown to a nationwide audience. I hope that this recording project will be a stepping stone to wider renown for them, which they absolutely deserve.
Tomorrow’s concert programme is delightfully broad, with a selection of music by well-known as well as lesser-known composers: from Ralph Vaughan Williams, Pēteris Vasks, Ola Gjeilo and Wilhelm Stenhammar to Kjell Janunger, Ulf Nilsen – and David Saulesco.
Ulf Nilsen is a Norwegian organist, improviser and composer with a decades-long, successful career in spite of his blindness. His setting of Det er den draumen, a poem by countryman Olav H. Hauge, for mixed choir and piano is mostly subdued and subtle, as befitting the text, with a few passionate, colourful outbursts. Norwegian public broadcasting agency NRK held a public vote in 2016 where the Norwegian people voted Hauge’s poem as the best Norwegian poem of all time.
Kjell Janunger is something of a local celebrity, having founded both Örnsköldsvik Chamber Choir as well as the renowned music school at Mellansel Folk High School. (Coincidentally, Örnsköldsvik Chamber Choir under Helén Lundquist-Dahlén premiered my Christmas Oratorio back in 2013!) Janunger is mostly known for Christian music, recorded a number of albums early on in his career, and is represented in the Swedish hymnal. We are performing a short motet of his, a setting of John 7:37–39: Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.
While I don’t think I need to present myself to you, dear reader, I would give you a few words about Pie pellicane, Jesu Domine. It combines selections from two texts by the supremely influential Italian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas: the prayer Adoro te devote (I worship you devoutly) and the hymn sequence Lauda Sion (Praise Zion), with the title coming from the former. It recalls the early Christian legend of the mother pelican killing, then resurrecting her chicks by drawing her own blood, essentially linking the supposed self-sacrifice of pelicans to the crucifixion of Jesus.
I composed Pie pellicane back in 2023 – in fact, almost exactly two years ago to the day! – and wrote a detailed breakdown of the music the week after. If you are interested, I recommend you go back to read that post. In September, the recording of Pie pellicane will be released digitally along with the score going on sale from Nordic music publisher Gehrmans.
Two weeks ago, I proudly announced the upcoming release of two digital singles here on this blog: O vos omnes and Det finns en väg till himmelen, that we recorded along with Pie pellicane earlier this year. I was certain they would have been ready for prime-time by last week, but at the time of writing no progress appears to have been made on their release. With a little luck, I will be able to include links to both of them on all of your favourite streaming platforms in next week’s post.
Both scores are already available for purchase, however, with these lovely cover designs, courtesy of Gehrmans’ designer. Click on either cover to go straight to the publisher’s store page where you can also look at a watermarked preview of each score:
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