— Ensemble Works

* indicates a withdrawn piece
** indicates juvenilia, withdrawn and not available

Awakening of the Beauteous Faun, for 8 violoncellos

Date of composition: Stockholm, 5 May 2012
Instrumentation: 8 violoncellos
Duration: 11 min.
Dedication: To my dear friends in the cello section of The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Commissioned by: The cello section of The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, with financial support from Föreningen Filharmonikernas vänner (The Friends of the Philharmonic) and Stockholm Concert Hall.
Publisher: Swedish Music Information Centre, Stockholm
First performance: 30 September 2012, Stockholm Concert Hall (Grünewaldsalen). The cello section of The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
About the piece: Throughout history, the idea of the mythological faun has inspired poets, painters, choreographers, composers and all other kinds of artists. Sometimes the faun is depicted as an ugly beast, but quite often as a beautiful creature.
…..Awakening of the Beauteous Faun is inspired by the so called ‘Barberini Faun‘, which is located in theGlyptothek in Munich, Germany. Here we have a beautiful faun, sleepily reclining against a rock, who seems to be waking up from his sleep, ready for new adventures. We do not know who actually carved this marble statue, but it was probably created by a Hellenistic sculptor around 200 B.C.
…..For some reason it was forgotten and did not reappear until in the 1620s, when it was found belowCastel Sant’Angelo in Rome and restored, possibly by the sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini. The statue was then owned by the wealthy Barberini family in Rome and housed in the Palazzo Barberini until 1799, when it was sold.
…..Further inspiration comes from three poems of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854—91). These poems (Antique, Tête de faune, and Being Beauteous) describe creatures resembling the ‘Barberini Faun’.

Here are the Rimbaud poems:

Antique
Gracieux fils de Pan! Autour de ton front couronné de fleurettes et de baies tes yeux, des boules précieuses, remuent. Tachées de lies brunes, tes joues se creusent. Tes crocs luisent. Ta poitrine ressemble à une cithare, des tintements circulent dans tes bras blonds. Ton coeur bat dans ce ventre où dort le double sexe. Promène-toi, la nuit, en mouvant doucement cette cuisse, cette seconde cuisse et cette jambe de gauche.

Graceful son of Pan! Round your brow crowned with flowers and berries your eyes, precious spheres, move. Stained with brown lees, your cheeks are hollow. Your eye-teeth gleam. Your breast is a cithara, chords chime in your pale arms. Your pulse beats in that belly where a double sex sleeps. Walk, at night, gently moving that thigh, that other thigh and that left leg.

Tête de faune
Dans la feuillée, écrin vert taché d’or,
Dans la feuillée incertaine et fleurie
D’énormes fleurs où l’âcre baiser dort,
Vif et devant l’exquise broderie,

Le Faune affolé montre ses grands yeux
Et mord la fleur rouge avec ses dents blanches;
Brunie et sanglante ainsi qu’un vin vieux,
Sa lèvre éclate en rires par les branches.

Et quand il a fui, tel un écureuil,
Son rire perle encore à chaque feuille,
Et l’on croit, épeuré par un bouvreuil
Le baiser d’or du bois qui se recueille.

English translation by Oliver Bernard

Being Beauteous
Devant une neige un Être de Beauté de haute taille. Des sifflements de mort et des cercles de musique sourde font monter, s’élargir et trembler comme un spectre ce corps adoré; des blessures écarlates et noires éclatent dans les chairs superbes. Les couleurs propres de la vie se foncent, dansent, et se dégagent autour de la Vision, sur le chantier. Et les frissons s’élèvent et grondent et la saveur forcenée de ces effets se chargeant avec les sifflements mortels et les rauques musiques que le monde, loin derrière nous, lance sur notre mère de beauté, — elle recule, elle se dresse. Oh! nos os sont revêtus d’un nouveau corps amoureux.
*    *    *    *
Ô la face cendrée, l’écusson de crin, les bras de cristal! le canon sur lequel je dois m’abattre à travers la mêlée des arbres et de l’air léger!

Against the snowfall, a tall Being of Beauty. Whistling of death and the circling of faint music make this adored body rise, expand and quiver like a spectre; wounds of scarlet and black burst from superb flesh. The colours proper to life deepen, dance and detach themselves around this Vision in the making. Shudders rise and groan and the frenetic flavour of these effects fills with that mortal whistling and raucous music that the world, far behind, hurls at our mother of beauty – she recoils, she rears. Oh, our bones are clothed with a new amorous body!
*    *    *    *
Oh, the ashen face; the escutcheon of horsehair, the crystal arms! The cannon I must assault through the melee of trees and the weightless air!

Bohèmiana, after Giacomo Puccini

First version, for chamber ensemble
Date of composition: Stockholm, 13 June 2003
Instrumentation: 1*.1.1.1 / 1.1.0.0 / timp (doubling xylophone and Glockenspiel), 1 perc ad lib., hp or pno ad lib. / str: 1.1.1.1.1
[piccolo]
– Percussion instruments: triangle, clashed cymbals, suspended cymbal, side drum, bass drum, xylophone, Glockenspiel, tam-tam.
Duration: 10 min.
Dedication: To Thomas Jahnke
First performance: 18 July 2003, Stockholm Town Hall. Thomas Jahnke’s operetta orchestra, Olof Boman (cond.)

Biennal-fanfar [Fanfare for Linköping Music Biennial], for brass and timpani

Date of composition: Stockholm, 11 October 1997
Instrumentation: 2 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani
Duration: 2 min.
Dedication: To Leo & Son (Leo Wijkmark and Markus Leoson)
Commissioned by: Linköping Music Biennial
First performance: 26 October 1997, Linköping Concert Hall. Östgötamusikens Blåsarsymfoniker (wind band), B. Tommy Andersson (cond.)

Fanfare, for brass and timpani

Date of composition: Borås, 7 April 1990
Instrumentation: 2 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani
– It is recommended to double Trumpet I, Trumpet II, Horn I and Horn II (i.e. 4 horns, 5 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani).
Duration: 0,5 min.
Commissioned by: Borås Musikskola
Publisher: Swedish Music Information Centre, Stockholm
First performance: 7 April 1990, Borås Musikskola. Musicians from Borås musikskola, B. Tommy Andersson (cond.)

* Concertino per 8 viole

[Concertino for eight violas]
Date of composition: Lund, 18 June 1982
1. Vivace
2. Andante
3. Presto con brio
Duration: 7 min.
First performance: 23 June 1982, Lund Town Hall. The viola section of the Nordic Youth Orchestra, B. Tommy Andersson (cond.)

** Suite for brass octet and timpani, F minor

Date of composition: Sjömarken, 13 April 1980
Instrumentation: 0.0.0.0 / 3.2.2.1 / timp
1. Marcia funèbre
2. Allegro marcato
3. Lento assai
Duration: 23 min.