Mårten Jansson
An Elemental Elegy
Mårten Jansson
An Elemental Elegy
- Instrumentation Mixed Choir (SATB)
- Composer Mårten Jansson
- Lyricist Charles Anthony Silvestri
-
Difficulty Level
- Edition Choral Score Download
- Publisher Bärenreiter Verlag
- Order no. BA8529-DL
Download immediately after ordering
incl. tax,
excl. shipping costs
- Volume scale:
- from 25 pcs 5,53 €
- from 50 pcs 5,20 €
- from 100 pcs 4,88 €
Not available in all countries. Learn more
Description:
An Elemental Elegy was commissioned by the globally acclaimed ensemble voces8 for their CD "After Silence", which will be released in July 2020 to mark the ensemble's 15th anniversary.
Mårten Jansson explains: "The ensemble wanted a work about the beauty and fragility of nature and I asked my friend Charles Anthony Silvestri, who sent me this wonderful poem a few hours later:
Wildflowers spread across the hillside green;
A single ash stands sentinel.
Sparrows flit amid the lazy sway
Of tall grass in the whispering wind.
Glassy water touched by dragonflies;
Beneath, a flash of silver minnows;
Deeper still lie the woods beyond,
With many paths for wandering.
This idyll may soon be but a memory,
As plans and progress shall advance.
They burn the flowered hillside bare,
Root up the signal ash,
Drain the pond and pave the meadow
And, greedy, eye the woods beyond.
Now the wildflowers grow through cobblestones,
And sparrows nest among the chimney stacks.
Profound the harm we've done to Her, and yet
Nature, ever-changing, elemental, finds a way.
I found it extremely inspiring to set these verses about the beauty of nature, its endangerment by humans and the belief that it will recover from our interventions. My music primarily seeks to reinforce the meaning of the words."
Mårten Jansson explains: "The ensemble wanted a work about the beauty and fragility of nature and I asked my friend Charles Anthony Silvestri, who sent me this wonderful poem a few hours later:
Wildflowers spread across the hillside green;
A single ash stands sentinel.
Sparrows flit amid the lazy sway
Of tall grass in the whispering wind.
Glassy water touched by dragonflies;
Beneath, a flash of silver minnows;
Deeper still lie the woods beyond,
With many paths for wandering.
This idyll may soon be but a memory,
As plans and progress shall advance.
They burn the flowered hillside bare,
Root up the signal ash,
Drain the pond and pave the meadow
And, greedy, eye the woods beyond.
Now the wildflowers grow through cobblestones,
And sparrows nest among the chimney stacks.
Profound the harm we've done to Her, and yet
Nature, ever-changing, elemental, finds a way.
I found it extremely inspiring to set these verses about the beauty of nature, its endangerment by humans and the belief that it will recover from our interventions. My music primarily seeks to reinforce the meaning of the words."