Women’s Choir and Bronze Lurs! Carolinae Röster – Echoes of Ancient Times

Echoes of Ancient Times

In an unusually unusual musical journey, we accompany the fantastic women’s choir Carolinae Röster in their meeting with two musicians from the Ensemble Mare Balticum on Bronxe Lurs and other instruments from the Scandinavian antiquity. In a unique concert, the mysticism of ancient texts and sounds is mixed with more modern language and instruments, including a newly written work by Stefan Klaverdal.

Imagine the following: In a modern fantasy ritual, people come together to retell the story of how the world was created, how it will perish and rise again, but also how the goddess above all can save us. We encounter texts from the poetic Edda, which was probably written around 3,000 years after the advent of the bronze lurs. The Edda encounters fragments from the oldest text of a named author known to us, the high priestess Enheduanna’s epic about the goddess Inana, which is probably about the same time as the arrival of the bronze lurs in the Nordics. Everything is set to music by Stefan Klaverdal and will be premiered at RAVINEN, and in this way ideas and artistic expression across the ages meet in the work “Du drottning över all gudomlighet”.

The bronze lur is one of the oldest instruments found in Sweden and perhaps also one of the more spectacular. It is not known how it was used, it has been assumed that it had ceremonial significance, but in the copies produced in modern times, it can also be played quite a lot. Of course, there is no music written for bronze lurs as far as we know, but there have been experiments, especially under the direction of music archaeologist Cajsa Lund.

However, the bronze lur evokes thoughts and feelings.

One can imagine that when bronze made its entry into metallurgy, it was a revolution that made it possible to create objects with a fantastic luster never seen before. A technical marvel. One of the basic ideas is therefore to use one of the oldest instruments we know, the voice, which meets the somewhat later lurs and then let them in turn meet perhaps the newest instrument we know, namely the computer and electronics.

“Ever since I discovered the bronze lur as a child, I have been fascinated by them. The recording on a Musica Sveciae record is also imaginative, and I have dreamed of writing something for bronze lur as long as I can remember. I often work with unusual combinations of instruments and have a great interest in the ritual use of music, so it is exciting to see how it can be perceived in a modern context like a concert hall. When I was looking for texts to start from, I initially had other ideas, but through meeting Enheduanna, I was gripped by both the poetry and her fate, and since some believe that the religious ideas from Mesopotamia via Egypt ended up in Asatron, it felt like a given that she would meet the Edda in a work that spans over 6,000 years. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity and the meeting with the poet Enheduanna.”

In addition to the newly written work, we also hear other instruments from the Scandinavian antiquity and music from Carolinae Röster’s competition-winning repertoire.