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"CONTOURS" [TUTL FKT 23] 2003 Avaliable online from TUTL |
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| Contours (2001) is Kristian Blak’s fourth string quartet. Written for the Moyzes Quartet, it was first performed in the village of Gjógv at the Summatónar Festival 2001 in the Faroe Islands. The musical material is based on melodic lines derived from Faroese coastal contours. Here, the form is a particular continuous series of contours: the Faroes seen from the Northwest, from Enniberg to Mykines.
Nadn (2003), for solo cello, is a newer version of Blak’s work originally composed for violin and guitar (1988). The piece was inspired by music from the klezmer tradition. The three movements are based on music recorded early in the twentieth century in New York by Jewish immigrants from Galicia, Rumania and other parts of Eastern Eu-rope. Nadn is the Yiddish word for ”dowry.” Several meanings may be associated with the Faroese word ”landslag” (English: landscape), as used in the next two titles. One meaning of ”lag”, the latter part of the term, is ”melody.” The melodies in Landslag no. 2 (2001-2002) come from the ”land,” in a cultural way, as the melodic material is based on three Faroese traditional songs: a dance ballad, a hymn and a ”skjaldur” (rhyme). In Landslag no. 1 (2001), as in Contours, the ”lag” – the melodic material – is derived from contours in the physical ”land.” The outline used in this piece is the view seen from the village of Mykines westwards, from the horizon up to the edge of the bird cliffs. |
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