• Per Nørgård
  • I hexeringen og udenfor. Græsskrift (1999)
    (Within The Fairy Ring And Out of It. Letters of Grass)

  • Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)

Within the Fairy Ring - And Out of It”(for clarinet solo) and "Cao Shu - Letters of Grass" (for clarinet and piano) is to be regarded as one work in two movements – with the title "Within the Fairy Ring And Out of It. Letters of Grass”, with the solo piece as a prelude to the duo piece. The two pieces may still be performed separately.

  • cl, pf
  • 16 min

Programme Note

Within the Fairy Ring - And Out of It. Letters of Grass

I: Within the Fairy Ring - And Out of It (1999)
II: Letters of Grass (1993)

Imagine to be locked up within a Fairy Ring, to be embraced by it and – at the same time – to know that this is what you are. Imagine the claustrophobia. And the fascinating feeling of turning around, dervish-like, being absorbed by the power of the circle, the magic of the ring. Never to be able to get away..! And then suddenly - some day: to be free. Out of it!

The solo is to be regarded as a prelude to "Letters of grass", a translation of the Chinese Cao Shu, a style of decorative writing (calligraphy), which is used here in a figurative sense to describe the undulating patterns made by the wind blowing over grass-covered hills. The duo was completed in 1993, written for the clarinettist Jens Schou and the pianist Erik Kaltoft.

Per Nørgård