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| Frostsalme / Singe Die Garten / Gaudet Mater | 
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| Artists: Norgard, Perkman, Athelas Sinfonietta
Label: Chandos
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $8.99 (47%)
Buy New/Used from $9.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (2 reviews)
Sales Rank: 397814
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 095115100820
EAN: 0095115100820
ASIN: B00006JN9P
Release Date: October 22, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Singe Die Garten | | • | Wie Ein Kind: I Wiigen-Lied | | • | Wie Ein Kind: II Fruhlings-Lied | | • | Wie Ein Kind: III Trauermarsch Mit Einem Unglucksfall | | • | Tre Hymniske Ansateser For Mixed Choir: I Kompostion | | • | Tre Hymniske Ansateser For Mixed Choir: II Strandvalmue | | • | Tre Hymniske Ansateser For Mixed Choir: Die Parke, I | | • | Flos Ut Rosa Floruit | | • | Gaudet Mater | | • | Frostsalme |
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| Customer Reviews:
Norgard applies his various inventions of technique to choral writing with fine results June 16, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
FROSTSALME collects six choral works by Danish composer Per Norgard, including three world-premier recordings. The Danish National Choir/DR performs, conducted by Stefan Parkman, and on two pieces the Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen appears.
"Singe die Gaerten" (1974) for eight-part choir and eight instruments is Norgard's setting of that poem from Rainer Maria Rilke's SONETTE AN ORPHEUS. At this point in his career, Norgard was heavily interested in the infinity series first brought to prominence in his 1968 piece "Voyage into the Golden Screen" (see my review of the Da Capo disc for an explanation of the technique). By this time he had supplemented the melodic infinity series with suitable harmonic and rhythmic versions--the natural overtone series for harmony, and the golden ratio for rhythm--creating music that is pretty much aesthetically pleasing by definition. The piece is very, very good, full of amazing detail and sensual tones, and highly recommended listening. Norgard went on to use this piece as the ending to his Symphony No. 3, expanding it in the process. While the symphonic version, linked as it is to the symphonic form in general, is indeed awesome, the limited scoring of this version has its own charms, especially when the alto solo ("Du bist die Ruh...") comes in.
It is fitting that the following piece on the disc comes from Norgard's next phrase. "Wie ein Kind" for choir a capella (1979-1980) inaugurated a style based on the art of Swiss schizophrenic Adolf Wolfli where the perfect harmony of the infinity series was replaced by a schizoid repetition of small elements and a constant shift between idyll and catastrophe. The first movement, "Lullaby", was written by Wolfli in his disturbed artificial language ("G'ganggali ging g'gang, g'gung g'gung!..."), and as the lower ranges steadily sing the text, the alto comes in with a different part of Wolfli's poem in a harsh, bizarre tone that perfectly evokes madness. The second movement, the "idyll" of the work, is a straightforward setting of Rilke's poem "Fruehling ist wiedergekommen...", while the last movement returns to catastrophe with Wolfli's "Funeral March". This is a very compelling piece, and a fine reflection in musical form of Wolfli's art. "Wie ein Kind" has long since entered the standard Danish choral repertory, and several recordings are available, such as a recent performance by Ars Nova Copenhagen, but this one holds its own. Alongside this piece, one should also get ahold of Norgard's other two Wolfli works, Symphony No. 4 "Indian Rose-garden and Chinese Witch-lake" and the opera "The Divine Circus" (based on the madman's life).
"Flos ut rosa floruit" (1975/1991) is a choral setting of a melody Norgard used several times, most notably in "Twilight" for orchestra, with and a 13th-century Marian antiphon as text. The piece uses the melodic and harmonic infinity series, but the music seems curiously restrained and meek, evidence that the effect of the infinity series need not always be the same. The following "Gaudet Mater" (1971) is quite brief, only a minute and a half long, but "Frostsalme" for 16-part mixed choir ("Frost Psalm", 1976, revised 2001) contains is both the newest and longest work on the disc. Setting two poems by Ole Sarvig, it explores a wide variety of choral textures, from complex sixteen-part polyphony to a single melodic line, and the singers occasionally play percussion. While the melodies are derived from the infinity series, this is done in such a way that the series is not directly audible, and thus belongs to that portion of Norgard's oeuvre--still continuing today after the interruption of the Wolfli period--where he began to interfere with and conceal the series for new effects.
One piece on the disc, however, is much less satisfying. "Tre hymniske ansatser" for mixed choir ("Three hymn-like dispositions", 1985-86) is a setting of poems by Gunnar Ekelof, Thoger Larsen, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Norgard says each movement begins with a hymnic character before moving into more complex writing, but to me it just likes like generic choral piece #447 and doesn't display the ingenuity that Norgard's music usually does. Still, the CD only contains one dud, and what's good is quite enjoyable. Though this would make a poor introduction to Norgard's music, if you've heard the incredible Symphony No. 3, or the magisterial-in-its-own-way Symphony No. 2 and want more, FROSTSALME is a good buy.
Sing My Heart Indeed! January 9, 2003
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
This album is worth 6 stars for the first cut alone. Norgard's setting of this beautiful Rilke text is nearly overwhelming in it's loveliness. Add to that seven other pieces for a capella choir that range from the quirky to the sublime and you have a solid CD indeed. Norgard is the leading modern Danish composer of his generation. Steeped in the Danish tradition through his teacher, Vaghn Holmboe, Norgard threw off the overt trappings of that tradition in the 60's when he embraced the European avant-garde. However, he never embraced serialism whole heartedly and in the 70's adapted mathematical techniques related to "the infinity series" (something that seems somewhat akin to Fractal Geometry) to a lushly tonal language. you can hear traces of Ligeti in his use of sonority, but also kinship with Raautavara, Berio, and ultimately Nielsen. In the 80's he started to explore extremes of expression brought about by an interest in a schizophrenic Swiss artist and poet (who's name escapes me at the moment). The works on this disc come out of the 70's and 80's The choral writing is strong, lush and richly tonal. In this context, some of the extended vocal techniques used in Wie ein Kind sound just plain odd. That is probably the intended effect, however I can't help but feel that they spoil an otherwise lovely piece. The real beaut of the set is Singe die Garten, Mein Herz. This is a stunningly lovely work. Based on Norgard's Infinity series, the work seems to grow organicly from it's opening notes. The balances between voice and instruments are sublime. It's a piece that you don't want to end. Having introduced myself to Norgard through these pieces, I'm anxious to continue my aquaintance with the symphonies, especially No. 3. His sound world is one that I won't soon forget.
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