Already in 1989, Karin Rehnqvist composed the work Timpanum songs – Herding calls/ Puksånger – lockrop, for two voices and timpanum. The piece contains traditional Swedish folk songs, poems by William Blake and Maria Sabina.

In 1994 it was recorded with the singers Lena Willemark and Susanne Rosenberg and Helena Gabrielsson, percussion.

Twenty-four years later, a section from Timpanum songs – Herding calls  reappears, the second movement that the composer has given the phonetic title Shi olvot. It is a version for choir, which was performed by the Swedish Radio Choir under the direction of Fredrik Malmberg in a concert in Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, December 1, 2018.

Original version for two voices and timpanum


New version for mixed choir

Shi olvot

A lily grew up in the green valley
It rose up like a floral maiden
I stopped and looked at the maid
Until the tears ran down my cheeks.
My love has left me,
Because I am so poor,
He has sought out another
Who is richer and fairer than I.
But Lazarus was far too poor
So he suffered much bondage
And so he was buried with pomp
And the angels in heaven sang.




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