| FORBIDDEN MANTRA |  2010 for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano 9'30''
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Forbidden Mantra has the same instrumentation as Vortex Temporum by Gérard Grisey and was intended to be included in the same program.  I resolved to use the same retuned piano featured in Vortex but in such a way that the piano part can also be played by a piano with ordinary tuning.  As to the form of the piece one may say it takes one more step towards the elimination of independent detail and voices:  Almost every event is "choral", simply the result of a tightly woven texture, and yet formal contrasts are of great importance...in fact there is almost nothing left but form, but even that is challenged at the end through a highly predictable though ever-varied mantra in 3/4 which goes on and on...
main performances
Reykjavik, June 5 2010  (Njuton and the Formalist Quartet)

| DÆM MIG GUÐ II | 2010 for mixed choir 1':30"
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I revised my former arrangement of this traditional Icelandic tune taking it just a step further from it's oldest form, but decided the first arrangement should also be valid, thus the "II" in this arrangement.

| ELSKU BORGA MÍN | 2009 for mixed choir, minimum of 24 voices 26'
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Elsku Borga mín draws its title and text from the letters a mother in the countryside in the West of Iceland wrote to her daughter when the latter was staying in a boarding school in the years 1948 and '49.  I made no attempt to set the contents of the letters to music in the usual sense.  The letters should rather be seen as fragments scattered on the surface of a big canvas.  Despite this I cannot deny the fascination for the language and tone of the letters, which were basically too sacred for me to touch them or "interpret".  The bigger part of the letters are about quite ordinary and everyday matters.  This operation implies dwelving into the ritual of everyday life in the countryside.  The most part of the music consists in voicescapes and spoken text, but there are also some more traditional sections.  The choir also makes use of six iPod machines for a separate sextet to intonate a series of microtonal chords in the last section of the piece.  This piece was commissioned by the Skálholt music festival.
main performances
Skálholt, July 2010