Composers

PASTORALE – from ”Babette´s feast” (1988)

Programme note - Short version:
Pastorale has a lyrical mood and a melodic simplicity, due to its origin: it is part of the music for “Babettes feast”, the Oscar winning film by Gabriel Axel based on Karen Blixen´s story of two sisters who are members of a very puritan congregation. Under the song-like surface, though, the metrical implications are rather ambiguous. The changes between stressed and unstressed beats force the ears to perceive a phrase as being on the beat at one moment and off the beat at the next. In this way, the simple lines of innocent pastoral serenity conjure the listener to be lulled into an artificial Paradise which is exactly the mood at the banquet in the central scene of the movie, the Feast itself, miraculously saturated with earthly delights – normally unthinkable for a narrow congregation far from the Big World.
Pastorale was originally composed in 1987 for string trio.
The string orchestra arrangement was made in 1988.
Per Nørgård (1999)
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Programme Note - Longer version:
The spectrum of sound, the gesticulation – in short, the very nature of the strings – has always had a central place in my output, demonstrated by the numbers of string quartets, concertos with string soloist, chamber and solo works. The interest dates back to my school years, when I was fortunate to be able to compose for a cello-playing schoolmate and to accompany him on the piano. I discovered then the innumerable nuances of sound and playing varieties offered by just one bow, four strings and five fingers…

Pastorale has a lyrical mood and a melodic simplicity, due to its origin: it is part of the music for “Babettes feast”, the Oscar winning film by Gabriel Axel, based on Karen Blixen´s story of two sisters who are members of a very puritan congregation. Under the song-like surface, though, the metrical implications are rather ambiguous. The changes between stressed and unstressed beats force the ears to perceive a phrase as being on the beat at one moment and off the beat at the next. In this way, the simple lines of innocent pastoral serenity conjure the listener to be lulled into an artificial Paradise which is exactly the mood at the banquet in the central scene of the movie, the Feast itself, miraculously saturated with earthly delights – normally unthinkable for a narrow congregation far from the Big World.
Pastorale was originally composed in 1987 for string trio.
The string orchestra arrangement was made in 1988

Per Nørgård (1999)