for instrumental ensemble<\/p>\n
duration approximately 12 minutes<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The raven, with its black feathers and characteristic call, is a bird with mythological overtones. In early Norse mythology, the god Oden had two ravens that flew out over the world, gathering knowledge.<\/p>\n
Among all the peoples living near the Arctic circle, the raven has always been associated with the sun, the myth being either that a raven stole the sun or revealed it. Presumably it is the blackness of the raven that evokes the association with the sun, its opposite.<\/p>\n
In Swedish, there is an idiomatic expression making ravens a bad omen (\u201ca raven of disaster\u201d), and in the past the raven was the bird of death. People believed that seeing a raven meant that one was going to die.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What about the call of the raven? In Swedish you can be \u201choarse as a raven,\u201d but that\u2019s actually a bit unfair. Ravens have more than one call, and many of them are very sonorous.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In \u201cRaven Chant\u201d the saxophone and the trumpet sing and call together. Alongside them, the oboe and the clarinet respond. In an interlude the bassoon takes over, calling out a drone with low sounds, resembling those of the double bass and bass drum, and sounding like a huge bumblebee. The piano plays an important role, with huge clusters of sound interrupting and dominating the flow. In the final movement, there is a general collapse into a huge hollow, out of which the piece is concluded.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere the raven pales and the swan turns black\u201d. There, in that magical place, anything can happen, can\u2019t it?
\nI composed Raven Chant for the Either\/Or ensemble, and it will be premiered at a portrait concert at the Miller Theatre in New York in March, 2012.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Karin Rehnqvist<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Raven Chant is related to the stage composition \u201dWhere the raven pales,\u201d a piece including voice. Raven Chant is shorter and perhaps a bit more wild, but the two pieces have the same DNA.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" for instrumental ensemble duration approximately 12 minutes The raven, with its black feathers and characteristic call, is a bird with mythological overtones. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programme-notes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p79arM-hV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4296,"url":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/autumn-2026\/","url_meta":{"origin":1111,"position":0},"title":"Autumn 2026","author":"Kulturpartikeln","date":"October 5, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Upcoming performances during the autumn and winter.","rel":"","context":"In "Latest"","block_context":{"text":"Latest","link":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/category\/latest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bakgr_abstr_kalendarium25namnteckn_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bakgr_abstr_kalendarium25namnteckn_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bakgr_abstr_kalendarium25namnteckn_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bakgr_abstr_kalendarium25namnteckn_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bakgr_abstr_kalendarium25namnteckn_2.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1112,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions\/1112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}