A short and accessible work that nevertheless captures an entire cosmos of ideas and elements of contemporary vocal music!
The internationally renowned Swedish composer and conductor Karin Rehnqvist undertook some research before beginning work on her composition Universe. Wanting to know how many stars and galaxies are in our universe, she came across estimates by renowned astronomers: 200 billion trillion stars and 2 trillion galaxies. Such dizzying numbers are simply beyond our human comprehension.
Universe begins with a swelling opening chord, which directs our gaze into the sky. Then Rehnqvist portrays this dizzy sense of awe by means of tumbling glissandi, rhythmic off-beats that disrupt the meter, secondary clusters stacked on top of each other, and babbling speech. Eschewing major/minor tonality, she instead makes use of pentatonic series and different tonal centers. This work is ideal for ambitious amateur choirs, as the pentatonic series are easy to memorize while the skillful voice leading makes it easy to correctly pitch the clusters. A great piece for anyone wanting an accessible and realizable introduction to contemporary vocal music and advanced performance techniques!
For budding astronomers, Karin Rehnqvist recommends the following website:
https://theconversation.com/how-many-stars-are-there-in-space-165370
Purchase
Additional product information
-
Composer
Karin Rehnqvist
| 1957Karin Rehnqvist is one of Sweden’s best known and most widely performed composers. From chamber music to orchestral, stage and vocal works, she has blazed a unique cross-genre trail, exploring the borderland between art and folk music, and evolving a highly distinctive compositional and performance style. One of her signature motifs is the extraordinary vocal technique of Kulning, the ancient call of Nordic herding girls to drive in their flocks. A restless innovator, her repertoire is marked by an uncompromising invention, raw emotional power and the icy shock of the new.
We asked the composer 6 questions, read them here in our blog: https://blog.carus-verlag.com/en/personalities/6-questions-for-karin-rehnqvist/
Personal details
Reviews on our website can only be submitted by customers with a registered user account. A check whether the rated products were actually purchased does not take place.
No feedback available for this product.
Frequent questions about this work
There are no questions and answers available so far or you were unable to find an answer to your specific question about this work? Then click here and send your specific questions to our Customer Services!
