Song Uranienborg Vokalensemble & Elisabeth Holte

• 1 Sol-lokk 02:41
• 2 Vé no velkomne med æra 02:40
• 3 No stig vår song 03:54
• 4 Velsignede morgen 02:36
• 5 Våren 01:19
• 6 Gryande morgon 03:12
• 7 Tre dikt av Ebba Lindqvist 03:55
• 8 Vokalise 03:11
• 9 Snart kysser hun sin venn i rosenhagen 03:55
• 10 The Lord is my light and my salvation 05:12
• 11 Ave Maria d’Aosta 02:34
• 12 Alt har sin tid 08:12
• 13 Min Jesus, lat mitt hjarta få 02:05
• 14 En smuk Aftensang 03:52
• Total Runtime 49:18

Info for Song

SONG is a recording of Nordic choral music with words and music describing the shifts of the human condition and man’s relationship with nature, God and his fellow man. The compositions present nature in all its variation, sensitively evoking the different times of the day, both lyrically and musically.

The first track of the album is Sol-lokk (Sun call), written for solo soprano and five treble voices. The call is inspired by the echo in a mountain valley in Tinn in Telemark and is composed by Marianne Reidarsdatter Eriksen, who has sung soprano in Uranienborg Vocal Ensemble since 2009. Educated as an organist and choirmaster, Marianne has written several commissioned works for various ensembles and choirs.

Vé no velkomne med æra (Be welcome with honour) is a folk tune from western Norway arranged for a cappella choir by Håkon Berge on the basis of Geirr Tveitt’s arrangement of the same tune. Geirr Tveitt collected folk tunes extensively in Hardanger, noting down around a thousand melodies. These later provided material for his popular instrumental work “A Hundred Folk Tunes from Hardanger”, from which Vé no velkomne med æra is taken. A characteristic feature of Tveitt’s music is his extensive use of modal keys. By using open chords, fourths, fifths and relating freely to the notes between, he achieves a natural tension and easing of tension, which Berge carefully retains in his vocal arrangement. Håkon Berge is a Norwegian composer, conductor, arranger and music administrator.

He has written a number of commissioned works, among them the music for the opening of the Library of Alexandria and for the opening of the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo. No stig vår song (Our song now rises) is a relatively new hymn written by Edvard Hoem and Håkon Berge to celebrate King Harald V’s 75th birthday in 2007.

Uranienborg Vocal Ensemble contributed to the celebratory service at Holy Trinity Church in Oslo. The programme included a premiere of a magnificent arrangement of this hymn performed by a full church gallery of singers. The hymn was included in the draft version of the 2008 Norwegian Hymnbook, and will be part of the new Hymnbook in December 2013. For the premiere performance the four verses of the hymn were arranged in different movements. We have chosen to present two of these movements.

Velsignede morgen (Blessed morning), its text taken from Henrik Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt”, is presented in a beautiful melody also arranged by Håkon Berge. The text comes from the fifth and final act where Peer is on his way home after many years of exile. He is starting to realise that his life has been wasted. Finally back with Solveig, he poses the riddle: “Where was I, as myself, as the whole man, the true man? Where was I, with God’s sigil upon my brow?” Solveig answers his question thus: “In my faith, in my hope and in my love”. In Ibsen’s play, Velsignede morgen is sung by churchgoers following a path through the woods as church bells are heard in the distance.

Uranienborg Vokalensemble are renowned for their vigorous performances of music from different genres and periods. In their latest album SONG they embrace the whole spectrum, from the softly delicate to the massively unsettling. In words and music each track has a story to tell about man and his relationship with nature, his fellow man and to God. The listener is rewarded with an almost visceral experience of the unaccompanied human voice – breathing and pulsing, direct and unfiltered.

The compositions present nature in all its variation, sensitively evoking the different times of the day, both lyrically and musically: Marianne Reidarsdatter Eriksen, Geirr Tveitt, Håkon Berge, Sven Erik Bäck, Alfred Janson, Bo Holten, Torbjørn Dyrud, Harald Gullichsen, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi and Carl Nielsen.

Uranienborg Vokalensemble
Elisabeth Holte, conductor
Recorded at Uranienborg Church, Norway, October/November 2011 by Lindberg Lyd AS
Recorded in DXD 24bit/352.8kHz

Uranienborg Vocal Ensemble
was founded in January 2002 and consists of 20-24 singers. Elisabeth Holte has been the ensemble's artistic director and conductor since its inception. Over the years the ensemble has performed numerous concerts of sacred and secular music from different periods. Variation in style and a strong emphasis on communication is a hallmark of their performances. In the words of a review in Norwegian Church Music after the choir's performance during Nordic Church Music Symposium in Reykjavik in September 2012: 'Rarely have we experienced music that moves so many at one concert”.

Elisabeth Holte,
the conductor and artistic director of Uranienborg Vocal Ensemble, graduated from the Norwegian Academy of Music as an organist and choirmaster, completing her Master's degree in conducting in 2000. She has also studied under the legendary Prof. Eric Ericson in Stockholm.

Booklet for Song