Páll Ragnar Pálsson

Nordic Music Days 2011 and recordings in the Greenhouse studio

2012-02-26T02:42:00.000-08:00

Last autumn we spent in Iceland visiting family and friends as well as performing at Nordic Music Days and recording new pieces in the Greenhouse studio with Duo Harpverk.

Rehearsing Náttúruljóð (Nature Poems) in Kaldalón with members of the Reykjavík Chamber Ensemble.

Náttúruljóð are in 6 parts for soprano and string quartet. Poem by Sjón.

Rehearsing in Kaldalón, the chamber hall in Harpa, Reykjavík's new concert house.

Here we are in the Greenhouse studio, recording with Duo Harpverk two pieces, Hýperbólusetning (Hyperbolic Inoculation) and Parabólusetning (Parabolic Inoculation) or together Kátínuvísindin (The Merry Science). Poem by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl.

Katie playing the harp at the speed of light!

Upcoming concerts

2012-01-08T12:03:00.000-08:00

January 28th in Háteigskirkja, Reykjavík, at 14:00

Kammerkór Suðurlands performs at Dark Music Days festival Kom, skapar, heilagi andi (Veni Creator Spiritus) for choir and percussion.

The piece is based on a composition by my great, great, great-grandfather, Pétur Guðjohnsen (1812-1877).

February 3rd in Swedish-St. Mikael's church, Tallinn, at 19:00

Premiere of Молюсь оконному лучу (I pray to the sunbeam from the window) for 12 voices and string trio. Poem by Anna Akhmatova.

The piece was commissioned by Karol Kisiel for his ensemble Repertorio Vocale.

Program:

1. Carlo Gesualdo: Tribulationem et dolorem inveni

Illumina faciem tuam

2. Luca Marenzio: Provate la mia fiamma

Crudele acerba

3. Carlo Gesualdo: Sospirava il mio core

O mal nati messagi

Tallor sano desio

Gioite voi col canto

Asciugate i beghli occhi

Break

4. Páll Ragnar Pálsson: I pray to the sunbeam from the window – Premiere

5. Tõnu Kõrvits: The Night Is Darkening Round Me

Kadri-Liis Kukk – soprano solo

6. Veljo Tormis: Vepsa Rajad

Soloists: Kadri-Liis Kukk – soprano, Aule Urb – alto, Kristel Marand – alto, Annely Leinberg – alto, Joosep Trumm – tenor, Jaanus Väljaots – bass

Performers:

Repertorio Vocale

String trio: Karolina Normak – violin, Laur Eensalu – viola, Theodor Sink – cello

Conducted by Karol Kisiel

February 10th and 11th in Gdansk, Poland

Sopot: 10th of February, Mundus Cantat Festival, 19:00 in St. John's Church

Gdynia: 11th of February, House of the Crafts, 16:00

Program:

1. Carlo Gesualdo: Tribulationem et dolorem inveni

Illumina faciem tuam

2. Luca Marenzio: Provate la mia fiamma

Crudele acerba

3. Carlo Gesualdo: Sospirava il mio core

O mal nati messagi

Tallor sano desio

Gioite voi col canto

Asciugate i beghli occhi

Break

4. Mart Saar: Seitse sammeldunud sängi

5. Gustav Ernesaks: Lindude laul

Kella hääli

6. Tõnu Kõrvits: The Night Is Darkening Round Me – Polish premiere

Kadri-Liis Kukk – soprano solo

7. Páll Ragnar Pálsson: I pray to the sunbeam from the window – Polish premiere

8. Veljo Tormis: Vepsa Rajad

Soloists: Kadri-Liis Kukk – soprano, Aule Urb – alto, Kristel Marand – alto, Annely Leinberg – alto, Joosep Trumm – tenor, Jaanus Väljaots – bass

Performers:

Repertorio Vocale

String trio: Natalia Walewska – violin, Liliana Dąbrowska – viola, Natalia Kasperczyk – cello

Conducted by Karol Kisiel

Viðtal og upptökur frá Norrænum Músíkdögum í Ópus / Interview and a recording from Nordic Music Days on Icelandic National Broadcast's show Ópus

2011-11-17T05:33:00.000-08:00

Hér má hlusta á viðtal við mig og upptöku frá Norrænum Músíkdögum þar sem Náttúruljóð voru flutt af strengjakvartett Kammersveitar Reykjavíkur og Tui Hirv.

Einnig má heyra þarna verk Mirjam Tally, Winter Island, frá sömu tónleikum ásamt öðru verki af nýju plötunni hennar, Eclipse.

Here is an intereview with me and a recording of Náttúruljóð (Nature Poems) from Nordic Music Days festival in Reykjavík. Performers are Reykjavík Chamber ensemble string quartet and soprano Tui Hirv.

In the recording you can also listen to Mirjam Tally's pieces, Winter Island, from the same concert performed also by the same quartet. Also there is a piece from her new album, Eclipse.

Icelandic Day in Tallinn

2011-11-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

Twenty years ago, Iceland was the first country to recognise Estonia's independence from the Soviet union. As a gesture of gratitude there was a special day here in Tallinn on August 21st devoted to Icelandic culture where Icelandic musicians, writers, photographers, chefs and designers came to show their art to the Estonian nation.

It was really nice to see Tallinn become like my local 101 Reykjavík for a day, as different as these cities are! Plenty of familiar faces around and such a pleasure it was to walk between different events in the old town.

Me and Tui organised a concert under our label Konveier for the festival with Icelandic chamber music in the Swedish St. Michael's church in the old town of Tallinn, performed by Estonian musicians. One of them, Atli Ingólfsson, also came specially to Tallinn to attend the concert, which definitely made the event even more special.

Program:

Páll Ragnar Pálsson - Skip hangandi úr lofti í kirkju (Ship Hanging from the Ceiling of a Church) for piano trio
Atli Heimir Sveinsson - Plutôt Blache Qu'azurée I and II (Rather White than Sky Blue I and II) for clarinet trio
Atli Ingólfsson - Forbidden Mantra for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano

Encore:

Arvo Pärt - Spiegel im Spiegel

Conductor: Taavi Kull

Performers: Karolina Normak - violin, Laur Eensalu - viola, Margus Uus - cello, Marion Aruvee - flute, Marten Altrov - clarinet, Liisa Hirsh - piano.

Below are pictures taken earlier the same day during a rehearsal.

Tartu New Composers Festival 2011

2011-11-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

This June I went to Tartu, a university town in the middle of Estonia, to participate in Tartu New Composers Festival in Jaani Kiri where Balancing on Babeltower for baritone saxophone and prepared piano, was premiered by Kaadri-Ann Sumera on piano and Ursula Chillaud on saxophone.

Below you can read the annotation to the piece.

This Easter I went to an all night Vigil at my local Orthodox church in Nõmme. It was a special experience for me, very different from what I am used to in Iceland’s Lutheran church. People had dressed up in the appropriate clothes, women with shawl over the heads, the scent of incense and prayer candles filled the room. The choir sang music I had only heard in Rachmaninov’s piece written from the same material. I found the whole experience to be very strong and have a deep effect on me.

Lately I’ve found myself thinking about the story about the Babel Tower and what we can learn from it. I think life might be full of Babel Towers; those are there either to distract us or to guide us, all depending on how we grasp things.

It is in our nature to develop, both us as individuals, and in a larger context, mankind. In the process we can, and repeatedly do, get self-centered and then lose sight of the whole context, become too aware of our abilities and ourselves. The balance between our spiritual self, and intellectual self gets lost. These are the Babel Towers I am talking about.

At a certain point in the sermon the congregation all gathered outside the church and walked around it while the church bells were ringing. I noticed that the song the bells were playing had a tritone, something I had never before encountered in church music. Walking home after the sermon we could hear the bells down the street. I decided to use the motive in the final part of the piece. It seemed somehow appropriate.

Commissioned by Tartu New Music Ensemble for the 10. Festival of Estonian Composers in Tartu, June 2011.

Vormsi/Ormsö concerts in Viljandi and Tallinn

2011-08-06T02:30:00.000-07:00

Vormsi/Ormsö - a three-piece cycle was premiered in Viljandi and Tallinn on May 26th and 17th. The cicle is inspired by a trip to the Vormsi island on the Vest-coast of Estonia last summer. The names of the pieces are:

Skip hangandi úr lofti í kirkju (A Ship Hanging from the Ceiling of a Church for pianotrio.

Rétttrúnaðarkirkja í bakgarði samyrkjubús (Orthodox Church in the Backyard of a Collective Farm) for woodwind quintet.

Hjólkrossar undir mosa (Wheel Crosses under Moss) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and soprano.

Between my pieces on the concert, folk singer Sofia Joons performed old songs from Vormsi and played the Hiiu Kannel (the bowed harp), an instrument also from Vormsi. Other performers were Tui Hirv - sopran, Hendrik Soon - violin, Thodor Sink - cello, Maria Vooglaid - flute, Marten Altrov - clarinet and Faristamo Leis - piano.

The concert in Tallinn also included Hýperbólusetning (Hyperbolic Inoculation (for soprano, harp and percussion), poem by Eiríkur Örn N0rðdahl. Performed by Tui Hirv - soprano, Liis Viira - harp and Aleksandra Krementeski - percussion.

Here are some pictures from the concerts and rehearsals before.

You can read the annotations below, in Icelandic and English.

Vormsi/Ormsö

Eistland er lítið land við Eistrasaltið, á vegamótum verslunar og styrjalda. Eftir að hafa verið undir yfirráðum þjóðverja og dana til 16. aldar, og áður en þeir lentu undir verndarvæng rússneska keisaravelsdisins 1710, var Eistland hluti af sænska konungsveldinu. Það leiddi þróunar sænsks byggðarlags á N-Vesturströnd Eistlands og eyjunum í kring. Ein þessara eyja heitir Vormsi, eða Ormsö á sænsku. Hugsanlega vísar nafnið til Miðgarðsormsins. Lítil samfélög eins og þetta (íbúatala var um 3000 þegar mest var) eru venjulega mun íhaldssamari en í landinu sem þau eru sprottin úr. Fólkið í Vormsi hélt upp siðum og menningu sem forfeður þeirra höfðu borið með sér frá Svíþjóð, jafnvel löngu eftir að þeir höfðu lagst af heima fyrir, til dæmis í upphafi 20. aldar hljómaði kirkjusöngur þar svipað og þekktist í Svíþjóð á 17. öld.

Ef við berum þetta saman við þegar norrænir víkingar ferðuðust til Íslands, má segja Ísland hafi þróast á svipaða leið: eins og lítill afleggjari skorinn af stórri plöntu sem síðan öðlast sitt eigið líf í nýjum jarðvegi. Örlög Ormseyjarbúa urðu þó önnur. Rétt fyrir seinni heimsstyrjöldina bauð sænska ríkisstjórnin svíum sem bjuggu á svæðinu sem hafði lent undir yfirráðum Sovét Rússlands við undirritun Molotov-Ribbentrop samningins að flytja yfir til Svíþjóðar. Sænsk byggð í Norð-Vestur Eistlandi lagðist af; eftir stóðu hús, staðarheiti, jarðir, vegir, kirkjur og kirkjugarðar. Samyrkjubúskapur tók yfir, án nokkurrar virðingar við það sem fyrir var.

Í dag búa um 240 manns á eyjunni, en margir svíar hafa fundið hús forfeðra sinna og nota þau sem sumarhús.

Þegar ég gekk á land í Vormsi í ágústmánuði 2010 missti ég alla tilfinningu fyrir að ég væri ennþá í Eistlandi, andrúmsloftið var öðruvísi. Nöfn á húsum voru á sænsku og staðarheiti sömuleiðis, en það var ekki bara það; ég fann einhvernveginn fyrir því að ég væri staddur á stað sem “var ekki lengur til”.

Eitt af því fyrsta sem ég sá þegar ég kom inn í Hullo, stærsta þorp eyjunnar, var gömul rússnesk rétttrúnaðarkirkja. Hún var að hruni komin. Neglt var fyrir glugga, hurð læst, lauk-laga turnspírur báru við himinn en þak að mestu hrunið. En það var fleira sem vakti ekki síður athygli mína. Í kringum kirkjuna var bílaverkstæði samyrkjubús og allt utan um það samansafn af drasli; gömlum bílhræjum og vélum. Þar sem ég virti fyrir mér þetta lík Sovét skrímslis sem

hafði hringað sig utan kirkjuna og reynt að murka úr henni allt líf tók ég eftir svolitlu: gróður óx upp úr þaki, gluggakörmum, undan hurðinni...

Í þorpskirkjunni, sem er Lúthersk, sá ég annað sem ég hafði aldrei borið augum áður: úr loftinu hékk líkan af skipi. Mér var sagt að við sjávarsíðuna í skandinavísku löndunum væri þetta gamall siður, fólk henti peningi upp í skipið í von um að ástvinir þeirra sem réru til sjávar kæmu aftur heilir á húfi. Þetta gat ég tengt mig við, enda alist upp, eins og flestir íslendingar, við sögur af sambandi manns og sjávar. Fyrir utan kirkjuna var kirkjugarðurinn. Við mörg leiðin voru hjólkrossar, eins og tíðkuðust í N-Evrópu á árum áður - gerðir úr steini, með hring utanum. Þeir voru orðnir gamlir og gróðurinn byrjaður að vefja sér utan um þá, tilbúinn að hylja þá í fyllingu tímans. Flest nöfnin á gröfunum voru sænsk. Þegar ég gekk um garðinn áttaði ég mig á að undir fótum mínum lá heilt samfélag sem hafði lagst af með öllum sínum siðum, þekkingu, tungumáli, sögum, og fólki.

Vormsi/Ormsö

Estonia is a small country by the Baltic Sea, on the crossroad of trading and battles. Having been under the Germans and the Danes until 16^th century, and before ending up under the generous guidance of the Russian czar in 1710, Estonia was a province of the Swedish empire. That led to Swedes settling on the north-western coast of Estonia and the islands around. One of these islands is Vormsi, or Ormsö in Swedish. The English equivalent could be Worm Island. In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr is a sea serpent, so large that he was able to surround the Earth and grasp his own tail. Small exile communities (the population of Vormsi was around 3000 people at the high point) are usually more conservative in their everyday life and culture than the nations they originate from. The people in Vormsi maintained traditions their ancestors had brought with them from Sweden long after they had stopped in the home country, for example congregational singing in Vormsi at the beginning of the 20th-century sounded similar to 17th-century church singing in Sweden.

Comparing this pattern to the travels of the Norwegian Vikings to Iceland, one could say that Iceland developed in a similar way: like an offshoot of a plant that grows in a new soil. But the people of Vormsi had other destiny than Icelanders. Right before the Second World War the government of Sweden decided to evacuate ethnic Swedes from the area that by Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact had been given to Soviet Russia. Swedish habitation in North-western Estonia ended; leaving behind place names, empty houses, fruit gardens, churches and graveyards. Collective farming took over, showing no respect to well-kept landscape. Today around 240 people live permanently on the island, but many Swedes have rediscovered their ancestors’ farms and use them as summerhouses.

When I disembarked from the ferry in Vormsi in August 2010 I nearly lost all feeling of being in Estonia, everything was different. Names on houses and places were Swedish, but it was not just that; I could somehow feel that I was in a place that didn’t exist anymore. When I came to Hullo, the biggest village on the island, I noticed an old Russian Orthodox church. It was about to collapse. Windows were sealed off, door locked, onion shaped domes reaching for the sky but the roof mostly collapsed. But there was more that captured my attention. At the church there was a garage of a collective farm and junk spread all around it: old cars and machines. Observing this corpse of a Soviet monster that had tried to circle itself around the church and squeeze all life out of it, I noticed something: there were plants growing from the roof, windowsills, from under the door...

In the Lutheran church of the island I noticed another thing I had never seen before: from the ceiling there was hanging a model of a ship. I was told that at the seaside areas of the Scandinavian countries there was a tradition to throw a coin into the ship, hoping that the loved ones would return home safe. This was something I could relate to, having, as most Icelanders, been brought up with stories on the relationship between man and the sea. Outside the church there was a cemetery. On many of the graves there were wheel crosses, as they were used in North Germanic areas in the old days – made of stone, with a wheel surrounding the tips of the axes of the cross. The crosses were getting old and weeds had wrapped themselves around them, ready to cover them entirely in close future. Most names on the tombstones were Swedish. Walking around, I realised that under my feet there was resting a whole society that had come to an end with all its traditions, knowledge, language, stories, and people.

Væntanlegir tónleikar/Upcoming concerts

2011-03-28T21:54:00.001-07:00

Icelandic Day in Tallinn, Swedish St. Michael's Church, August 21st at 20:00

Ship Hanging from the Ceiling of a Church for pianotrio performed by Margus Uus - cello, Karolina Normak - Violin and Liisa Hirsh - piano. On the same program will be pieces by Atli Heimir Sveinsson and Atli Ingólfsson.

Ung Nordisk Music Copenhagen August 21st

Hýperbólusetning (Hyperbolic inoculation), poem by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl.

Norrænir Mússíkdagar/Nordic Music Days Reykjavík October 8th

Náttúruljóð (Nature Poems) for soprano and string quartet. Performed by Tui Hirv and members from Reykjavík Chamber Ensemble in Harpa Concert House.

Estonian Music Days

2011-03-27T01:58:00.000-07:00

A new piece, Ship hanging from the ceiling of a churh for a piano trio, was premiered at this year's Estonian Music Days by Ida Teppo - violin, Theodor Sink - cello and Faristamo Leis - piano at a concert in the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. The piece is a part of a three-piece cycle based on our trip to Vormsi island, at the west coast of Estonia, summer of 2010.

The piece is quite a step for me as a composer as I was trying out many things I had never done before and it is rather long, or around 16 minutes. It took me around 4 months to compose so it was a great feeling to see it come to life and performed by such good players.

We plan to record the piece in the coming weeks and then I will upload exerpts from it.

Here are some pictures from the rehearsals:

Icelandic Music Days in Amsterdam

2011-02-20T02:14:00.000-08:00

Last week we were in Amsterdam participating in Icelandic Music Days festival where Tui performed three of my pieces: Brekkukotsannáll for soprano, mixed choir, chamber enesemble and harmonium, Náttúruljóð (Nature Poems) for soprano and a string quartet, poem by Sjón, and a premiere of Hýperbólusetning (Hyperbolic Inoculation) for soprano, harp and percussion, poem by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl. Hýperbólusetning was performed by harpist Katie Buckley and percussionist Frank Aarnink, or Duo Harpverk. The festival, curated and conducted by Ari Hróðmarsson, is, as the name suggests, based on icelandic music and performers are mostly icelanders that are studying in Holland. It was a great experience to work with all of them, and not to mention spending a week in Amsterdam, where we had never been before.

Tui rehearsing with Duo Harpverk.

Ari conducting rehearsal of Brekkukotsannáll.