Shining Through was commissioned for the 12th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition, September 2023.
Premiere: Frimurerlosjen, 28 September 2023, during the chamber music competition
The winner of the Commission Prize, for best performance: Rilian Trio (Canada)
Program notes
Shining Through emerged from a timbral idea, that of the harmonic trills which form a significant portion of the strings’ material. The material from these trills, both timbrally and harmonically, has informed the development of the piece. The title “Shining Through” refers to a shifting of worlds, in which one world can momentarily “shine through” into another, maybe when it is most needed?
Cecilia Ekmark commissioned me (thanks to generous funding from Statensmusikverk) to write a new piece for flute(s) and piano (Roger Johansson), inspired both by Hans Falklind‘s bird photographs and birdsong, for her ongoing project called Birds. This project is also supported by Sveriges ornitologiska förening (SOF) and BirdLife International. We met twice in Göteborg to develop material through improvisation, which I have now used as raw material to create the piece. Tomas Tranströmer’s early poem ‘Preludium’ is woven throughout the piece, which is titled ‘Vingarna breddas’ (‘The Wings Spread’). The project premiered 26 May 2013 in Gothenburg’s 3.e Våningen.
