Drömmar (Dreams, 2018)

Mixed choir a capella

Choir, actors, oud, guitar, electronics

Durata total approx. 45 min

Music by Stefan Klaverdal

Lyrics by Qasmuna Bint Isma’il (c. 1200), ‘Ulayya bint Al-Mahdi (d. 825) and anonymous refugees (Malmö, 2018)

 

Alternative titles:

Ulayya poems

Seeing herself beautiful and nubile

 

Scores

Complete score (pdf)

Score “Seeing herself” (pdf)

Score “Ulayya poems” (pdf)

 

 

What it is

Four classical Arabic poems by female poets meet contemporary voices speaking about longing love and dreams being a refugee.

The poems are written for mixed choir a capella, and the contemporary voices in a more complex setting with actors reading most of the text with the choir, oud, guitar and electronics in the background.

 

The choir pieces are possible to sing separately.

 

 

About the piece

What do you dream about when you have to flee your home, and when you do not have a home, food or friendly faces around you?

“Dreams” evolves around questions about hopes and future asked to people that have left their home countries for Sweden, in an attempt to learn more about their thoughts about the future.

The work also contains texts by female Arabic poets from around the year 1000 dealing with subjects of longing, of loving despair and of wishes for the future.

 

First performance at Lund International Choral Festival in October 2018 by Batoul Ardat och Yazan Alqaq (actors), Ali Sabah (oud), Celia Linde (guitar), Saxenborn singers (choir), Joachim Saxenborn (conductor), Stefan Klaverdal (computer)

 

Made possible by contributions (financial or otherwise) from

Statens Musikverk, Region Skåne, Kulturrådet, Helge Axon Johnssons stiftelse, STPLN, Lunds körfestival, Saxenborn Singers, SLU-repron, dynamik – ljud och musikproduktion