December 2019: Karin Rehnqvist is the composer of the month at Gehrman’s music publishing company, Sweden.
Here’s how she is presented:
Karin Rehnqvist’s music moves in the borderland between folk and art music. She has integrated the ancient female singing technique called kulning into a personal tone language that gave birth to driving classics such as In Heaven’s Hall, where the girl choir surprises with her powerful expression.
When she formed KVAST (2008) she believed her career was over – today she is a professor of composition at the Royal Collage of Music in Stockholm (since 2009) and one of the most played Swedish composers on the international stage.
The beautiful, Swedish choir world
The most beautiful Karin Rehnqvist knows is the Swedish choral world.
– The choral song is my home and the voice my instrument, the composer says.
– Someone has written about my music that it articulates itself. Like that backwards sound in David’s Nimm. And it should be accurate and clear!
– My expression can be quite straightforward and I think that fits well with folk music. I use scales derived from it, with quartones. If I write for strings, it may be a little noisy at the strings, as it does in folk music. The expression should be strong.
Here, some tastings:
