THE DREAM\/ Dr\u00f6mmen
For alto voice and cello
Duration: ca. 9 min<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I found a short poem on the internet that stunned me. In a few vivid lines, it warned of evil times ahead. It was an apocalyptic dream-vision, in my mind akin to the V\u00f6lva\u2019s prophecy from the Poetic Edda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The poet was Rosa Taikon (1926\u20132017), a silversmith and human rights activist. In 2007, I got in touch with her about using her poem for a different piece\u2014When the Raven Black Turns White<\/em>. We talked for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The poem never left me and suddenly one day it felt urgent again. It wanted new, slightly different music. To help me find a new angle, I used an English translation. Every language brings its own character to the music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Dream<\/em> has two movements. The first movement is a song and a lamentation. It powerfully conjures the dream-vision. The second movement is quieter and more introspective. It is wordless music built on humming sounds. Cello and voice are asked to find a common sound, to \u201csing\/play into each other\u2019s sound.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/a>I wrote The Dream<\/em> for two musicians from Norway: the folk singer Unni L\u00f8vlid and the cellist and new music specialist Marianne Baudoin Lie. It is included in their concert series Svarteboka<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Text:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I had a bad dream\u00a0 \u2013 Rosa Taikon<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE DREAM\/ Dr\u00f6mmenFor alto voice and celloDuration: ca. 9 min I found a short poem on the internet that stunned me. In a <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3197,"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-3193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-programme-notes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p79arM-Pv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4296,"url":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/autumn-2026\/","url_meta":{"origin":3193,"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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/programme-note_cirkel_7.png?fit=576%2C358&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193","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=3193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3198,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions\/3198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karin-rehnqvist.se\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
I stood by the sea
Suddenly the sky went black
and the sun burned up
Birds screeching in the sky
The beating of their wings warning us of
evil times to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
translated from Swedish by Linda Schenck<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n