• Bent Sørensen
  • Seks sange (2001)
    (Six Songs)

  • Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
  • vn
  • mezzo soprano
  • Ono no Komachi (834-880) & Hwang Chin-i (1506-1544)

Programme Note

In 1997-98 I was on the lookout for Japanese inspiration! I had agreed to write a work for the Norwegian BIT 20 ensemble, commissioned for a concert with a Japanese theme. I had some difficulty tackling the problem of being inspired ‘to order’; but suddenly I came across a number of poems by the Japanese woman poet Ono no Komachi (834-80). I knew that I would soon be working with singing voices in connection with my opera, so I started to compose small songs - primarily for violin and singer - on the basis of these texts. I also used two poems by the Korean poet Hwang Chin-i (1506-44). These songs, in instrumental garb, came to form the skeleton of the ensemble work This Night of no Moon. And now I have taken the songs out again and given them back their original form - as songs.

"This night of no moon
There is no way to meet him.
I rise in longing -
My breast pounds, a leaping flame
My heart is consumed in fire

Six songs are written for Lore Lixenberg and David Alberman