Karin Rehnqvist: TAKE THE MILKY WAY (2024)
for mixed choir, baroque orchestra and audience ad libitum
Poem by Kerstin Perski, specially written for this piece
Duration ca 14 min
Movements
- Invisible threads
- Rush
Black hole interlude - Reach out your hand
- And the journey continues
The first movement paints a dark picture of our age.
Scattered and bleeding, we humans float in a void.
But invisible ties still bind us – ties of mutual dependence.
If you stumble, far away I feel it too.
The music conjures dramatic desolation in mostly dark timbres, with an oboe and choir taking the main part in turns.
Where is any hope for something better? What can we do?
The second movement is a protest song, a battle cry.
It is a pacy, rhythmic, pentatonic movement for choir, amped up by fast, energetic runs on the organ.
We must do something! Do the impossible!
Take the milky way / Rush / past the point of no return
Defy Venus / Evade the mass of Jupiter
At full speed and without warning, the voices break off. We land in an organ interlude: the black hole interlude.
Reach out your hand – the third movement calls to everyone.
Pull the fallen from the enervating black hole. Free the light.
Do the impossible!
Then suddenly the music opens out and pauses on two notes: one very high, one very low. An unexpected quiet descends.
And in the fourth movement, we continue our voyage through the unknown.
Cautiously. Feeling our way. Together.
Karin Rehnqvist, December 9, 2024 (translated to English by Robin Blanton)
Take the Milky Way was commissioned by Helsinki Chamber Choir for their 20th anniversary. World premiere 26 April 2025 in Helsinki Music Centre
shattered
dispersed
stars fading
one by one
in empty space
invisible threads
tying one to the other
A sudden stumble
another one falls
light-years away
Take the milky way
Rush
past the point of no return
Defy Venus
Evade the mass of Jupiter
Reach out your hand
pull the fallen
free the light
from the black hole
and the journey continues
together
through the unknown
Kerstin Perski 2024
