ROMANTARCTICA

ROMANTARCTICA
浪漫北極

1,836 views Premiered Apr 11, 2021 #OseKammerspel #ROMANTARCTICA #Romantic
Watch World Premiere of ROMANTARCTICA chamber version from Ose Kammerspel.

Commissioned by Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Arctic Philharmonic
Read about the multiverse of ROMANTARCTICA and all its scorings under.

This piece will be premiered in 2 larger versions with Kristiansand April 22 and Stavanger May 6.
In this brand new video made by the brilliant Bartosz Sosnowski I play together with the fantastic Maria Ose,Julia Neher,Sandra Lied Haga,Brynjar Schulerud,Rasmus Hella Mikkelsen and Albert Noven.

ROMANTARCTICA

(Heroes from the Past and Hopes for the Future)

A musical expedition from the Arctic regions of the North and South.

Commissioned by the Arctic Philharmonic and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the world's northernmost and southernmost professional symphonic orchestras.

I am inspired by the romanticism inherent in the voyages of the great explorers Scott and Amundsen and the many adventurers who faced the unknown with an unquenchable thirst. I am also inspired by my musical heroes from the Romantic era to whom the great explorers were exposed growing up.

Ports of Departures.

The fact that I, the Artistic Director of the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, which is based in Tromsø, was tasked with this co-commission with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, which is based in Hobart, triggered my imagination beyond belief.

Tromsø is the most important Arctic port from which Amundsen, Nansen and many more headed for the North, but it is also the first port Amundsen used before redirecting Nansen's Fram to the South Pole, reaching it right before Scott.

And the last port of departure for both Scott and Amundsen was exactly Hobart, Tasmania.

The idea for this commission, which was initiated by Simon Rogers, was born when I performed excerpts from my composition Equinox in Tasmania on the very day of Equinox. During long conversations with Simon in Tasmania and during his travels in Norway, the project matured through mind-boggling perspectives in highly unusual talks.

Psychologically, I believe that the explorers in some ways were Romantics first and foremost.

None of them had the training needed when they made their choices, but seemingly nothing could stop them.
Even the tragic fates of Scott and his team, and the ones suffered similarly in the north by Amundsen later on have elements of Romanticism in their weave.
They were willing to die for their beliefs and dreams, or to protect the romanticized images they had created of themselves.
Scott heading for the South Pole with ponies and gramophone recordings conjures up a scenery of tragedy but also of courage, faith and grand deeds and actions.

I am also inspired by my own dreams and hopes for the future.

I believe that all the exploring we ultimately need to undertake for the future of humanity is best done with a Romantic creative spirit not limited to conventional scientific thinking alone, but instead it will require us to jump willingly into the unknown without having clear answers.

In the Arctic and Antarctic regions you can find mammals, birds, and other living things both above and below the ice as well as in barren lands.

The story of ROMANTARCTICA starts with a white landscape. Isn't there an arctic fox looking around curiously, soon becoming wary of some unexpected members of the two-legged species and all their seemingly irrelevant problems?
In this piece we find ourselves present simultaneously both in the North and in the South and in different times of the past and future.
We are there to share the hopes and dreams of Scott and Amundsen, Nansen and the other pioneers.
We are invited to look at their innermost secrets and the wildest dreams in their hearts.
I do not feel restricted to those matters on which biographers or historians focussed.

The chase to be the first is depicted musically through canons, in which a theme chases after itself just an eight note apart.
A funeral theme is re-occurring, and there are also some very gentle reminders of vital, but forgotten details that almost break through the surface to the mind.

When did Scott understand that he would die in the desolation?

The arctic temperature has inspired motifs and orchestrations standing in stark contrast to burning flames in the hearts even when tragedy can almost barely be suppressed anymore.

But actually all of these and more are also just thoughts floating through my mind and inspiring me while I am composing. What I love and what drives my inner forces is when a funeral march or an amorous theme starts to live a life of its own, and the story stops being tied to actual words or events, but instead starts exploring a world beyond the reach of words.

(continue in comments section)

Film Provided by Henning Kraggerud