Description

This three-movement suite is based on texts by Edith Södergran. The first movement conjures up a garden at night beneath clustered stars. Here the dream-like, irrational atmosphere is given expression in the soft whistle-like tone of the flute in its highest register and in the use of different percussion instruments. At certain points in the first and second movements the soprano strikes hanging glass rods, mussel shells and bamboo pipes. The second movement tells of smoke-like dreams. Apart from ordinary singing, here the soprano makes use of ‘Sprechstimme’, and ‘Sprechgesang’. At the end she sings “drr-drr”, which must be seen as a last reminder of the word ‘dreams’. The last movement expresses ecstasy: the triumph of being alive. Therefore, at the end the soprano leaps to her highest register in an ecstatic fortissimo, as does her flute. In this dynamic outburst the metallic rumble of tom-toms and cymbals can be heard.

Translation:

As night approaches, I stand in the porch and listen; stars are swarming in the garden and I stand in the darkness. Oh! a star just fell with a crash! Do not walk in the grass with bare feet; my garden is full of splinters.

Do not go walking too close to your dreams: for they are like smoke and likely to vanish for they are dangerous and could well come through.

What have I to fear? I am a part of all that is forever. I am a part of Being’s mighty power, a solitary world upon millions of worlds, a star of the first magnitude, the last to fade. Triumph of living, triumph of breathing, of being here, triumph of feeling time’s icy cold running though your veins. And hearing night’s quiet stream. And standing on the hill in the sunlight. I walk on sun, I stand on sun. I know of nothing other than sun.

[writer and translator unknown: from the program leaflet for Erik Bergman Concert in Carnegie Hall, November 21, 1983]

Den tresatsiga sviten bygger på texter av Edith Södergran. Den första satsen talar om en nattlig trädgård med svärmande stjärnor. Här tar sig den fördrömda, irrationella stämningen uttryck i flöjtens svaga visselläten i högsta registret och i utnyttjandet av olika slagverk. I vissa moment i den första och andra satsen slår sopranen med handen på hängande glasstavar, musselskivor och bamburör. Den andra satsen handlar om sköra, rökliknande drömmar. Sopranen använder sig här utom av vanlig sång också av talröst och talsång. I slutet sjunger sopranen ett ”drr-drr”, vilket är att betrakta som en sista reminiscens av ordet drömmar (dreams). Den sista satsen vill uttrycka extas: triumf att finnas till. Och därför svingar sig sopranen i slutet till de högsta höjderna i ett extatiskt fortissimo, likaså flöjten i sitt högsta register. I det dynamiska utbrottet hörs metalliskt dånande tamtamer, gonger och bäcken.

Sviten är tillägnad Dorothy Dorow som uruppförde den i Köln 1979.

Instrumentation

sopr, fl+pic, perc

Category

Vocal and Choral Works

Language

Sv

Opus no.

op.87

Lyricist

Edith Södergran

Premiere

Dorothy Dorow, soprano, Rien de Reede, flute, Willy Goudswaard, percussion, Cologne, January 25, 1979

Movements

1. När natten kommer (As night approaches), 2. Gå icke alltför nära dina drömmar (Do not go walking too close to your dreams), 3. Vad fruktar jag? (What have I to fear?)

Commisioned by / dedications

Dedicated to Dorothy Dorow

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