Gala festival concert

Journeys in Time and Space

Charles-Marie Widor (1844–1937)

Allegro from Symphony No. 6, Opus 42, No. 2

Hans Davidsson, Willis organ

Davidsson Organ and Dance Collaborative

Hymn Improvisation Journey

Sietze de Vries, Baroque organ

Isagel Suite from Aniara

Text: Harry Martinson, 1959

Music: Carl Unander-Scharin (1, 3, 5, 6, 8) 2019/2024

Music: Carl and Åsa Unander-Scharin: (4, 7) 2019

Music: Åsa Unander-Scharin (2) 2019

Åsa Unander-Scharin: choreography, music, dance, observer

Carl Unander-Scharin: music, tenor, throat

Amanda Flodin, alto

Karl-Peter Eriksson, baritone

Hans Davidsson, baroque organ

Gusten Aldenklint, Ljudhavet

Magnus Lorentzson, light design

Ulrika Davidsson, stage director

The Observer system and The Throat system are developed by Åsa Unander-Scharin, Carl Unander-Scharin and Ludvig Elblaus. In the systems, recordings by Åsa Unander-Scharin (viola da gamba), Carl Unander-Scharin (harpsichord), Dorota Siuda (violin) and Hans Davidsson (organ), are heard.

• I. Människan, askans konung, tenor and organ
• II. Doris landi, dancer, observer
• III. Själv har jag inget namn, Passacaglia, tenor and organ
• IV. Den livligt sprattlande ingivelsen, tenor, throat, dancer, observer
• V. Jag ska berätta vad jag hört om glas, tenor and organ
• VI. Spjutet, Toccata, dancer and organ
• VII. Osynlig för vårt öga gled hon undan, tenor, throat, organ, dancer, observer
• VIII. Det finns skydd för nästan allt, alto, tenor, baryton, organ

Matthias Weckman (?1616–1674)

Weine nicht, es hat überwunden der Löwe von Stamm Juda

Sacred concerto from the year 1663 when the plague descended on Hamburg

Amanda Flodin, alto

Carl Unander-Scharin, tenor

Karl-Peter Eriksson, bass

Arrangement for voices and organ, Hans Davidsson

Arina Trostyanetskaya, dance

Davidsson Organ and Dance Collaborative

PROGRAMME NOTES FOR THE ISAGEL-SUITE

During the spring of 2019, we began to create a new work based on Harry Martinson’s long suite of poems, “Aniara”. In 1956, Swedish poet Harry Martinson (1904–1978) wrote and published his epic poetry suite depicting a spaceship that has lost its course after leaving an earth devastated by war and environmental disaster. His audience was surprised to read this new kind of poetry by their beloved and quite rurally oriented poet. The poems formed the basis for the opera Aniara (1959), with a libretto by Erik Lindegren and music by Karl-Birger Blomdahl. The opera was a huge success and toured internationally.

In our adaptation of Aniara, we chose the poems that depict the female pilot Isagel. We wanted to find a way of picturing her relation to the work’s narrator Mimaroben: a relation that is full of mutual respect and fascination for deep scientific thought, as well as shared abhorrence for the cold, dark and lonely space outside of the ship. They also share concerns for the remaining few humans and their hopeless future in the vessel.

The music is composed for tenor and organ, as well as the combination of Observer-system and dance that we have developed for our artistic work. In our version of Aniara, the church organ is a metaphor for the Mima (the artificially intelligent ship’s computer), whereas the Observer system is a metaphor for the “Gopta-table” where Isagel carries out her work with the “Jender curves”. Today we would probably equate those things with touchscreens and machine code. We also make use of another of our own systems, “The Throat”, in order to dynamically change and extend the voice of the singer.

Furthermore, the music material is based on an “astronomic tone series”: a series of tones that are derived from the astronomic numbers that can be discerned in Martinson’s poem. Martinson tells us that Aniara is headed for the Lyrae, far away. In 2015 – many years after Martinson´s death – it was confirmed by Nasa that the planet Kepler 438 b in the Lyrae has an ESI (Earth similarity index) that is -0.88. This means that this planet, in fact, is the one with the closest similarity to Earth of all known planets yet. The Lyrae is 25.05 light years away from the Earth – and this number, together with other astronomic numbers, forms the basis for the tonal series used in the work.

In collaboration with GAS (Gothenburg Art Sounds) and the Parish of Örgryte