Swedish composer Anders Jallén (1961, based in the Netherlands) wrote the ‘Requiem for nyckelharpa and double bass’ in April 2024, commissioned by conductor Josefine Straesser. One evening in October 2023, Josefine was driving home to Amsterdam from Antwerp when she heard the nyckelharpa on Radio 4, the Dutch radio channel for classical music. She was immediately captivated by the instrument and came up with the idea of incorporating the original Gregorian melodies underlying the Requiem op. 9 by Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986), into a composition for nyckelharpa. The ‘Requiem for nyckelharpa and double bass’ was written for Janine Buisman (nyckelharpa) and Henrik Holm (double bass). The unique sonority is characteristic of this duo.
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| Anders Jallén |
Anders Jallén began his music studies with musicology in Sweden in the 1980s. Including at the University of Gothenburg with Professor Jan Ling, whose doctoral dissertation (1967) was on the nyckelharpa as a folk music instrument in Sweden. At that time, there were only a handful of (mostly elderly) nyckelharpa players and he therefore assumed the instrument was critically endangered. Ling's work was a milestone in placing the instrument at the centre of traditional folk music at the time. This Requiem was therefore written in fond memory of the late professor of musicology Jan Ling.
Jallén's Requiem uses nine ancient melodies from the Liber Usualis, the same melodies that also inspired Duruflé for his Requiem op. 9. Sometimes these melodies are used by Jallén in a way that ties in with that Gregorian tradition. But, also considering the instrumentation and especially the nyckelharpa, idioms inspired by traditional Swedish folk music are sometimes used, with Jallén also coming up with variations of his own.
The ‘Requiem for nyckelharpa and double bass’ will be premiered on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 June at the Nassau Church in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. More info and tickets available on the website Requiem voor de buurt (only in Dutch).
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