SONGS BETWEEN LIGHT AND DARKNESS/ Lávlagat gaskal čuovgga ja seavdnjadasa
– for two reciters, soprano, alto saxophone, clarinet in Bb (also b.cl) and piano. 16′
Texts: Gunnar Ekelöf, Karin Rehnqvist, Sandro Key-Åberg
Translation in Sami: Mirja Päiviö
Reciters speak in Sami, soprano sing in Swedish
Movements (English titles, for Swedish/Sapmi, see the score)
- Neither the moon nor the sun nor the stars – 4 min
- The moon floats silent in the night – 5 min
- Where darkness was you are – 7 min
I once was asked, “What defines the North? What is nothernness?”
“Light, Dark, and Love,” came my spontaneous reply. “That’s what the North is to me.”
Up here, summer and winter are periods when we live in concentrated light or darkness. Spring and fall are times of transition, and we are always aware of our exact position on the annual scale of light to dark. “It’ll be lighter again soon,” we say encouragingly to one another when December is darkest. “We’ll be moving in the other direction soon.” When summer comes, we glory in the bright evenings, the bright nights, but we know it won’t be long before darkness descends again.
Although I grew up in the south of Sweden, for my entire adult life I have been interested in the north. For twenty years we had a cabin up in Ångermanland. That gave me new perspectives. Every summer I go hiking in the northern mountains, and in 1999 I had the opportunity to join a research expedition to the Canadian Arctic. For a month, I lived on an icebreaker vessel. I had to get used to seeing the world map as circumpolar, with the North Pole at its centre.
Light, Dark, and Love. What else is the North?
Well, in the far north multilingualism is very marked. Many lands and cultures come together here. Sweden, Norway, and Finland all meet at a point called Treriksröset. The Sapmi region, traditionally inhabited by the Sami people, stretches across the entire Arctic area of the Scandinavian countries, from Norway in the west to the Kola Peninsula of Russia in the east. Here, people speak not only Sami, but also Kven and Meänkieli.
Thus a piece for the ARcTic ensemble took shape that uses poems by Swedish poets, sung in Swedish, but translated into and recited in Sami. A piece about light, dark, and love.
– Karin Rehnqvist, 3 February, 2022
Composed for the ARcTic Sustain Ensemble and Berit Norbakken.
Commissioned by the ensemble as part of Art VAPO – True North, artistic research at The Arctic University of Norway (UiT), the Music Conservator, Tromsø
Texts in English translation, for understanding.
1.
Neither the moon nor the sun nor the stars/ gave me light/ The darkness gave me light/ And the light of love in me/ through whose body its rays beam.
– Gunnar Ekelöf,
translated by Linda Schenck
2.
The moon floats silent in the night,
the clear sky is shimmering with stars,
shimmering over hill and water,
shimmering over you and me.
– Karin Rehnqvist,
translated by Robin Blanton
3.
Where darkness was you are
and you bear light upon your shoulders,
where grief was you are
and joy shines yellow
as the dandelion at your heels,
where death was you are
and this is life,
yes, tremendous life
that I drink from the cup of your hands.
– Sandro Key-Åberg,
translated by Robin Blanton
