Description

Songs of the Ice is an orchestral work about ice. In the
Arctic region, the ice breathes with the seasons, swelling in winter and
shrinking in summer. Its age-old movement sings a song of its own:
slowly surging, unrelenting and covering all beneath it. It tinkles and
rumbles, squeaks and laments as our ever-warmer climate breaks Nature’s
time-honoured laws, forcing the ice to give way. When I composed the
piece, I was expecting our second child, due to be born in the heart of
winter when the bitter cold strengthens the ice, making it powerful and
solid again, and I was vividly reminded of the time after our
first-born. Songs of the Ice also describes the emptiness and
reclosing process that begins in a woman’s body when she parts company
with the life inside her in giving birth. The work was commissioned by
the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and The Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

Songs of the Ice and Midnight Sun Variations can be performed as a pair, in either order, or individually.

Instrumentation

3333 4330 13 1, pno+cel, str [pic, ehn, bcl, cbsn, fhn] or 2222 2200 12 1, pno+cel, str [pic, ehn, bcl, cbsn]

Category

Works for Orchestra or Large Ensemble

Premiere

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, cond. Hannu Lintu, October 2, 2020, Helsinki

Commisioned by / dedications

Commissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and The Iceland Symphony Orchestra

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