The Sacredness of Trees

for 4-octave carillon (or 3-octave carillon)

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’The Sacredness of Trees’ was commissioned by Nordic Music Days 2019 for Bodø Cathedral’s 4-octave carillon and the eminent Norwegian carillonneur Vegar Sandholt, to be performed on November 13, 2019 at the opening of the festival in Bodø, Norway. It was also performed each day of the festival (November 13-16), and was played simultaneously around the world, from 16 bell towers in Sweden, Denmark, usa, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Australia!

The Bodø Cathedral carillon is a beautiful instrument, built in 2012 with 50 bells (a bit more than 4 octaves) which were cast at the Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry in Asten, the Netherlands, one of the oldest and most respected bell foundries in the world.

The commission from Nordic Music Days was based upon the festival theme of ’Truth’. Thinking about the bells themselves, the concept of Truth soon merged with my focus on the rich overtones of the bells. I came to think about the concept of overtones, and the fact that in English we some- times use the word ’overtone’ to denote something which is present or felt, without being stated. I started to think about the overtones of a bell – some very present, some barely audible – as that which expresses the bell’s true character. Maybe our outward presence in the world can be expressed
as our ’fundamental’, while our true, complex character is expressed by our own subtle, unique, felt-but-not-heard mix of natural harmonic and non-harmonic overtones? With these thoughts in mind, I built my new piece for Nordic Music Days upon the overtones of the deepest bell in the Bodø carillon. It is an exploration of the subtleties of inner truth (represen- ted by the complex overtones of the Bodø carillon), and the interaction
of that inner truth with the ’outer’ truth of the surrounding city and natural landscape.

For me, the natural world is an enormous source of truth, both in the un- folding of its natural laws and rhythms, and in its sheer natural beauty. But the truth of the natural world is not only beautiful: it also encompasses the destruction of our natural world, through (for example) the felling of old- growth forests. ’The Sacredness of Trees’ has become a call to respect and protect the world’s oldest forests, which are rapidly disappearing.

’The Sacredness of Trees’ was commissioned with support from Det norske komponistfondet (The Norwegian Composers’ Fund), and was nominated for the edvard-Prize in 2020.

Available for purchase from Norsk Musikforlag

https://musikkforlagene.no/en/product/ellen-lindquist-the-sacredness-of-trees/

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EDVARD-pris nominert!

I was thrilled that my piece The Sacredness of Trees for carillon was nominated for Norway’s prestigious EDVARD-prize, in the category Contemporary Music! What an honor! The Nordic Music Days Festival (2019 in Bodø) commissioned the piece for the festival (thanks to support from The Norwegian Composers Fund), and carillonneur Vegar Sandholdt played it each day of the festival in the tower of Bodø Cathedral in November 2019. Vegar has been invited to perform the piece also at Nordic Music Days in April 2021, in Torshavn in the Faroe Islands, how wonderful!
More info

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Recording of Nakoda with Redshift Records

I’m very pleased to announce that flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor will record my amplified alto flute piece Nakoda on Redshift Records in 2017. He’ll also perform it on Redshift Music Society concerts in Vancouver, Canada. Looking forward!

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Many Thousand Gone

solo piece for cello and voice (single player)

Commissioned by Marianne Baudouin Lie for solo cello and voice (one player), Many Thousand Gone draws inspiration from on an old African-American folk song of the same name. Premiered in February 2017, Many Thousand Gone expresses my reaction to the ongoing refugee crisis.

This ‘story’, told with music and fragments of folksongs, is based on the enormous diversity of stories which I have learned from refugee friends, and read in the media. Those of us who have grown up in relatively peaceful countries cannot truly understand what it means to have to flee from one’s homeland. The closest I have come to understanding comes from my deep empathetic response — having a young child myself — to mothers who have fled with infants and young children. What must it be like to undertake such a journey while also doing your best to care for your children? I cannot imagine. This ‘story’ for cello and voice is told from the perspective of a mother, remembering. Fragments of two folksongs, one American and one Norwegian, are woven into the piece: ‘Many Thousand Gone’ is an American slave spiritual from the mid-1800s, and ‘Vi har ei tulle’ by Margrethe Munthe about absolute love for one’s child…something which is the same across all cultures.

Funded by The Norwegian Composers Fund (Det Norsk Komponistfondet).

 

Many Thousand Gone (a few verses)

…No more slavery chains for me | No more, no more
No more slavery chains for me | Many thousand gone
No more children stole from me | No more, no more

No more children stole from me | Many thousand gone…

 

Vi har ei tulle (first verse)
Vi har ei tulle med øyne blå, | med silkehår og med ører små
Og midt i fjeset en liten nese | -så stor som så….

 

Solo works * PROJECTS: * WORKS: Upcoming ongoing

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Alpaca Ensemble Plays Ellen Lindquist

Friday 4 april • 1 p.m. • Rein kirke • Rissa • Norge: Opening of KULMIN
Saturday 26 april • 3 p.m. • Huskonsert i Rissa  more information
Sunday 27 april • 1 p.m. • Ilen kirke • Trondheim  more information

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Chamber Music Solo works * PROJECTS: Upcoming

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Zonnebloem

for solo clarinet

also, for 2 clarinets Read more »

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Eos

for solo violin Read more »

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Turning Towards the Sea: 17 Haiku for Solo Trombone

solo trombone Read more »

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Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky

solo marimba
or solo piano Read more »

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Nakoda

solo amplified alto flute Read more »

works with Dance / Movement Solo works * WORKS:

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Be Still, My Soul

multi-percussion, viola and multi-percussion (new) Read more »

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Gaia

solo violin
also: solo viola • solo cello
[for dance]
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Our Fathers’ Daughters

evening-length performance art piece with music for solo cello Read more »

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Pastorale and Invention

solo piano Read more »

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