LENDBREEN ISBRE AVSLØRER EN ANTIKK KJORTEL NÅR DEN SMELTER - Will Handysides (2013)

Recording from Premiere Performance by Trondheim Sinfonietta, conducted by Torodd Wigum at Trondheim Kunstmuseum

In late August I read an article about the Lendbreen Glacier, parts of which have been melting. A large patch of snow had melted to reveal an Iron Age tunic and several arrowheads which were about 6000 years old. This seemed a beautiful subject for a piece of music. We think of glaciers as ancient and unchanging but this story reveals that they grow and shrink; that they are, in a way, alive. My piece consists of two main elements - a cantus firmus, representing the ancient tunic and played only by bassoon, horn and viola; and the rest of ensemble who represent the glacier. I took chemical data about the change in density of water as it melts and used these numbers to inform the textural 'density' of the portion of the ensemble representing the glacier. As the piece progresses, it changes from icy to fluid, high energy to low, fast to slow, loud to quiet. The cantus firmus is only revealed at the very end when the rest of the ensemble has finally died away.
Sept. 2013

Lendbreen Isbre

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Conducted by Hanna Ohlson-Nordh.

Kontratanker (Counterthoughts)

Written and performed by Will Howarth
Copyright 2017

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Lendbreen Isbre

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