Annual List of Works : STIM/Svensk Musik Swedish Music Information Centre

~2.6M

Work Title
A new heaven and a new earth

Composer
Sven-David Sandström (b. 1942) Swedish

Genre
Contemporary classical

Instrumentation
Mixed choir a capella

Year of composition
1980

Duration
7,39 min.

Place of premiere performance
Stockholm

Premiere performance
Spring 1981

Performers
Hägerstens Motettkör, dir Ingemar Månsson

Score Publisher: Gehrmans Musikförlag AB, Box 42026, SE-126 12 Stockholm
URL: http://www.gehrmans.se
E-mail: order@gehrmans.se
Edition-No.: NO6656
Price: SEK 33 (approx. EUR 3,5)

Recording
Record company: Phono Suecia, Swedish MIC, Box 27327, SE-102 54 Stockholm
URL: http://www.mic.stim.se
E-mail: swedmic@stim.se
Edition-No.: PSCD 139
Performers: Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, dir Eric Ericson
Price: SEK 148 (approx. EUR 15)

Programme note
In the choral compositions of Sven-David Sandström the substance of the text  always achieves intense musical expression. But the composer's interpretation does not leave it at that. The musical texture also creates ambiguities, as if the text were a starting point for associations of ideas. The composer is not at all foreign to transmitting experiences of beauty through what are almost romantic textures of sound, but these are gradually transformed to express anxiety, unease or ugliness.

The unaccompanied works Agnus Dei and En ny himmel och en ny jord (A New Heaven and a New Earth) have several points in common. Both of them are widely arched, with slow-breathing phrases beginning in pregnant tranquillity but surging to illuminating heights before reverting to a stage of subdued calm. This description could apply to the whole of Agnus Dei. In four tension-filled phrases a prayer for mercy is addressed to the Lamb of God ("miserere"). The bow is drawn progressively tighter and the harmonies grow more and more intense until they finally burst into an exclamation of despair.

After a short general pause - the only one occurring in the piece - comes the second half of the prayer for peace, and the choral sound, this time more chordal than before, gravitates in a slower rhythm towards a resting position attained in the bright F sharp of the closing chord.

En ny himmel... (A New Heaven...) has a similar opening to that of Agnus Dei, written six months earlier. Starting from middle C, the parts fan out in a wide arch which, at the word "himmel" (heaven), vividly embraces a wide, dense sound spanning almost three octaves, after which they retreat back to the starting point. This work has a much longer text than its predecessor and so the phrases often move in a faster rhythm. The frequently homophonic texture is initially based on a completely diatonic tonal material, but gradually more and more chromaticism is introduced, and this, together with clusters of indeterminate pitch, creates an uncertainty of expression. In this way, at the same time, the composition formulates a confidence of belief in such sentences as "och Gud själv skall vara hos dem" (and God Himself shall be with them) or "Se, jag gör allting nytt" (Behold, I make all things new) and, through these stylistic devices, a contemporary anguish about human existence.

Text: Roland Horovitz. From Phono Suecia nr 25 (1987)

A sublime chord in the quietest possible but, still, purest F major which concludes Agnus dei (1980). The mild major chord grows slowly out of a long, dynamic denouement consisting of a unison C, a swelling body of sound broken up by the painful calls of 'miserere.' Sandström refers to the Old Testament’s vision of God’s appearance before man: not with a shout, but a whisper.
Camilla Lundberg (from PSCD 139)

Translation: George Kentros

Biography
Born in Borensberg on the 30th October, 1942. Between 1968 and 1972 he studied composition with Ingvar Lidholm at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where guest professors such as György Ligeti and Per Nørgård also had an important influence on him. Sandström himself was a professor of composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm from 1985 to 1995 and and then he held the position of prorector at the College until 1998. From the autumn of 1999 he is Professor of Composition at the School of Music, Indiana University, USA.

It is an almost impossible task to present a complete picture of the various phases of Sandström's creative development and his enormous output, which covers a wide variety of genres. He made his breakthrough with Through and through (1972), a work which received international acclaim when it was performed by the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam in 1974. The music that he wrote in the 70s is mainly instrumental, characterised by a wealth of detail and often extremely complex. Culminations for orchestra (1976) is an example of this style. Choral music has always had a special attraction for Sandström (he was a member of the Hägersten Motet Choir for twenty years); A Cradle Song/ The Tyger (1978) is an important choral work. His requiem mass, De ur alla minnen fallna - Missa da requiem (Mute the Bereaved Memories Speak, 1979) for soloists, chorus and orchestra met with a huge response when it was first performed in Sweden in 1982, not least on account of the poet Tobias Berggren's radical text.

During the 80s Sandström wrote a large number of works for the stage, including several ballets in collaboration with the choreographer Per Jonsson, of which Den elfte gryningen (The Eleventh Dawn, 1988) is an example. Over a period of twenty years the composer has also developed a close collaboration with the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble, which has resulted in works such as Drums (1980) and Kroumata Pieces (1995). The 80s also witnessed another change of direction for Sandström as a composer: he began to write in an extrovert neo-romantic style which manifested itself in his Cello Concerto (1988) and in the Piano Concerto (1990).

An impressive work from recent years is the ninety-minute-long High Mass (1994) for soloists, chorus and orchestra which presents a synthesis of his creative ideas. It had happened before and now it happened again: his music triggered off a debate in the Swedish press about the role of art music and its relation to audiences. Sandström has written music that has appealed to a wide audience, and this apparent adaptability seems to have a provoking effect in certain art music quarters. However, it is easy enough to recognise the composer Sandström in each of the different phases: the music reflects his strong determination to say what he wants to say and is always extremely expressive; only the outward characteristics change.

In 1997 Sandström wrote the oratorio Moses for the 300th anniversary of Oslo Cathedral, and the large-scale opera Staden (The City) to a libretto by the poet Katarina Frostenson.

Sandström has received several awards, including the Christ Johnson Prize (Through and through) in 1974, the Nordic Council Award in 1984 (Missa da Requiem), the Buxtehude Award in 1987 and the Christ Johnson Major Award in 1995 (High Mass).

Tony Lundman