for mixed choir and chamber ensemble<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Free the sound \u2013 Hail Queen, mother of mercy!
\nInitially, I imagined the music expanding from the inside.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A kind of bright bubble of sound, extremely lively and dynamic, growing. That music was the first thing to come to me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Then I started looking for a text. I searched and searched, but didn’t find what I was looking for. Eventually, I started composing anyway, without words, allowing the flow of the music to guide me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From there I suddenly heard: \u201cSalve!\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Salve Regina, a traditional eleventh century Latin hymn to the Virgin Mary found me. It struck me as incredibly beautiful. I also thought it was unexpectedly relevant with its text about children in exile, the vale of tears, and a desire for someone, someone endlessly merciful and good, to pray for us all.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The first section is an invocation, a bright, harmonious trilling appeal.
\n– Hail Queen, mother of mercy\u2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The second section is a lament, surrounded by vast spaces. The instruments embrace the voices with sparse, dark tones.
\nLater I also added a brief prelude the piece as a whole, a few phrases that anticipate the lament. It felt as if the bright, trilling address at the beginning required dark background in order to ring true.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The third and final section is a prayer. It rises up out of the depths and becomes an increasingly stronger cry:
\n– Pray for us, pray for us always, pray for our earth.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Salve Regina- Heavenly Queen was composed for the Netherlands Chamber Choir and Nieuw Ensemble, and commissioned by The Eduard van Beinum Stichting.
\nKarin Rehnqvist 3\/5 2007<\/p>\n
Translated by Linda Schenck<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Text:<\/p>\n
(lamenting) \u2013 Aya<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Salve Regina, mater misericordiae:
\nvita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
\nAd te clamamus exsules filii Evae.
\nAd te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle.
\nOra pro nobis
\nOra pro nobis justera
\nOra pro Terra nostra
\nAmen<\/p>\n
(Hymn to the Virgin Mary, probably from the eleventh century. Last two lines added by Karin Rehnqvist)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
English translation:<\/p>\n
(Lamenting) \u2013 Aya<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hail Queen, Mother of mercy,
\nour life, our sweetness, and our hope, hail
\nTo thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
\nTo thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.
\nPray for us
\nPray for us always
\nPray for our earth
\nAmen<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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