Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Per Nørgård
Morgenstund (1998)
(Early Morn)- Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
Programme Note
Early Morn, 5 Preludes and a Serenade - Suite for Guitar
The work was written with its point of departure in the final serenade, “Serenita”, which was composed in 1996 at the request of the American guitarist David Starobin and which can be performed as an independent piece. It turned out that the ideas of the piece with respect to melody, rhythm and sound were capable of creating a delta of small, related pieces whose sequence of states creates a unified progression towards the serenade (this fact, however, does not not prevent isolated performances of the individual movements).In spite of the quodlibet-like character of the fifth movement, all the melodies, as far as I know, are my own. An exeption, however, is the second morning song, which is quoted with gratitude in part from “Copehagen Theatre of Nørrebro - Summer Revue 1917”, indirectly (as I was not born at the time) and in part from my father, directly, who often jovially sang the moving lines “This is my morning song, bang bang. It isn´t so long, bang bang” (and so on for a long time), composed by M. Buxheuil.
I think I share the experience with many people that not every morning can be experienced as “golden”. Therefore, I have included a “Depressive Scherzo” in my series of common morning states. Other positive, well-known states are included in addition, such as the experiences of Dawning (literally and metaphorically), of Listening, of delicate presence in the new-born world – after that of waking up to action (that is to say, in this case, The Old Grind and pulling oneself together!) – and eventually the address to one´s beloved in the Serenade (to “boundless purity”: Serenita). The description “Still Gentle from Sleep” is, like the title Early Morn´, borrowed from Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem “Die Flamingos”.
Per Nørgård
The work was written with its point of departure in the final serenade, “Serenita”, which was composed in 1996 at the request of the American guitarist David Starobin and which can be performed as an independent piece. It turned out that the ideas of the piece with respect to melody, rhythm and sound were capable of creating a delta of small, related pieces whose sequence of states creates a unified progression towards the serenade (this fact, however, does not not prevent isolated performances of the individual movements).In spite of the quodlibet-like character of the fifth movement, all the melodies, as far as I know, are my own. An exeption, however, is the second morning song, which is quoted with gratitude in part from “Copehagen Theatre of Nørrebro - Summer Revue 1917”, indirectly (as I was not born at the time) and in part from my father, directly, who often jovially sang the moving lines “This is my morning song, bang bang. It isn´t so long, bang bang” (and so on for a long time), composed by M. Buxheuil.
I think I share the experience with many people that not every morning can be experienced as “golden”. Therefore, I have included a “Depressive Scherzo” in my series of common morning states. Other positive, well-known states are included in addition, such as the experiences of Dawning (literally and metaphorically), of Listening, of delicate presence in the new-born world – after that of waking up to action (that is to say, in this case, The Old Grind and pulling oneself together!) – and eventually the address to one´s beloved in the Serenade (to “boundless purity”: Serenita). The description “Still Gentle from Sleep” is, like the title Early Morn´, borrowed from Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem “Die Flamingos”.
Per Nørgård