Poems

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Description +
- Duration: 14 min.
  
  Music: Daniel Berg
  Text: Emily Dickinson
  
  When American poet Emily Dickinson died in 1886, only a few of her poems were published. She had sent her poems to a local critic, who tried to dissuade her from publishing and considered that her poetry was too dirty and odd, and therefore only a handful of her poems were published during her lifetime. After Emily's death, her sister was responsible for the publication of the 1700 poems and has since been praised by people all over the world. Dickinson was a very original poet, glorified and like to talk in the same breath. She wrote about conventional poetic subjects such as nature, love, death and God.
  
  The combination of the sound from a vibraphone, together with a soprano, fits so well together. When Taiwanese-American percussionist Yun Ju Pan asked me for a piece for soprano with percussion, I suggested the vibraphone. To get as much contrast as possible in the composition, I chosen texts by Emily Dickinson with very different character for the four first movements. The fifth one is written more like a jazz ballad and some sort of reflection of the poems by Dickinson - a final poem without words.
Instrumentation +
- Vibraphone and Soprano
About the composer +
- Daniel Berg is a Swedish composer, musician, and professor in classical percussion at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and at the Academy of music and drama in Gothenburg.
  
  In his passion to promote the marimba as a solo- and chamber music instrument, Daniel has worked intimately with a number of composers who have written original music for the instrument. This includes more than 300 world premier for solo and chamber works. Daniel Berg is a marimba artist of Bergerault and Elite Mallets.
  
  As a composer Daniel has written a lot for solo marimba like Mistral (for Michael Burritt), Phoenix (for Robert van Sice) and Yán Jiâng (for the Taiwan World Percussion Competition). His music for percussion ensemble have been appreciated and often performed like Kroumata (for sextet) and Arctic Nights (for quintet) - all published by Edition Svitzer.
Reviews +
- Review (Percussive Notes, October 2021)
  
  Daniel Berg states in his prefatory remarks, “The combination of the sound from a vibraphone, together with a soprano, fits so well together. To get as much contrast as possible in the overall composition, I chose texts by Emily Dickinson with very different character for the four first movements. The fifth movement is written more like a jazz ballad and some sort of reflection of the four poems by Dickinson — a final musical poem without words.”
  
  The four poems selected by Berg (from Emily Dickinson’s poetry) are 1. “As if some little Arctic Flower,” 2. “Because I could not stop for death,” 3. “’Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” and 4. “I felt a funeral in my brain.” The fifth movement, “Poem without words,” is a vocalise (sung on “Aaa,” “Ooo,” or “Mmm”). This movement has a jazz-ballad sound to it. Each of the first four movements has a different character and style: Movement 1 is rhythmically propelling in the vibraphone in a non-tonal harmonic structure; Movement 2 has soft tone clusters on the vibraphone with whispering of the lyrics from the soprano; Movement 3 opens with block harmonic scoring before transitioning to triplets, with the soprano imitating the triplets in Dickinson’s text, ending with harmonies that are similar to the opening; and Movement 4 opens with a harmonic ostinato that is rhythmic, repetitive, and loud, with the soprano soaring above this accompaniment in a very bold, contrasting fashion.
  
  This delightful 14-minute fusion of soprano and vibraphone is suitable for two equally talented performers.
  
  —Jim Lambert
Credits +
- Art work (Photo): Bengt Berglund
  Front Cover: Ronni Kot Wenzell
  Photo (Daniel Berg): Jon Liinason
  Engraving: CPH Engraving
  Printed in Copenhagen, Denmark
  Copyright © Edition SVITZER
  www.editionsvitzer.com

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