Two Songs

by Esa-Pekka Salonen

to poems by Ann Jäderlund

Description

I became enchanted with Ann Jäderlund’s poetry because of its sensual intensity and lack of sentimentality. She describes sensations with amazing effectiveness, with few words but with a rhythm that immediately awakens musical associations.

In the first song, Kyss min mun (Kiss my mouth), I tried to give musical shape to verbal images such as 'touch me', 'glide', and adjectives such as 'slippery', 'round' and 'loose'. In Djupt i rummet (Deep in the room), the text is presented as a whole in a Palestrina-like simple counterpoint section at the beginning. The poem is then broken down into phonemes used as material for a musical game that becomes increasingly like a virtuoso piece until its culmination. A simple chorale featuring the poem again over slow harmonic waves concludes the work. The songs are of course dedicated to the Swedish Radio Choir.

© Esa-Pekka Salonen, 2000

(Chesternovello)

Instrumentation

chx

Category

Vocal and Choral Works

Language

Sv

Premiere

Swedish Radio Choir, cond. Stefan Parkman, Swedish Radio Choir 75th anniversary concert, Stockholm, December 2, 2000.

Movements

1. Kyss min mun, 2. Djupt i rummet

Commisioned by / dedications

Commissioned by te Swedish Broadcast Corporation for the 75th Anniversary Concert of the Swedish Radio Choir.

+ Add information