I was very happy to get a chance to work with renowned poet, journalist and writer Gerður Kristný on setting her epic poem Drápa to music. It was the London based Poet in the City that got us together in the first place last spring, and working with Gerður has been a lot of fun. Outcome is a ~30 minute long work for reciter, flute, laptop, marimba and cello, mostly based around speech melodies created from Gerður’s own original reciting of her poem.
The premiere took place 9 September 2019 at the very beautiful and historic venue Wilton’s Music Hall in London, curated by Poet in the City. Here is the event description, and at the bottom of this page are photos and recording excerpt from the premiere.
A tribute to all women murdered by violent men, Icelandic poet Gerður Kristný presents Drápa, a story of modern-day Nordic crime reimagined through Old Viking Skaldic verse, musically accompanied by members of ALDAorchestra .
In this rare event, Gerður’s book is brought to life through chilling live readings and an accompanying new musical work written specially for this occasion by Helgi Rafn Ingvarsson and performed by members of the British-Icelandic group ALDAorchestra. Inspired by the horrific and traumatic stories of victims and their violent perpetrators, the evening will seek to commemorate all women who have suffered abuse at the hands of those closest to them.
Drápa in Møn, Denmark
In october, we - ALDAorchestra and Gerður- will travel to Møn island in Denmark for the annual World literature festival there. We have been invited to perform Drápa twice during the weekend long festival. More here: http://www.verdenslitteratur.dk
Marimba: Adam Bushell, flute: Helen Whitaker, cello: Sarah Davison, electronics: Helgi R Ingvarsson.
Cellist Sarah Davison and composer conductor Helgi R Ingvarsson.
Cellist Sarah Davison and poet Gerður Kristný.