Into Dust

Paul Daniel (*1977) – The Church Bells of Pankovits

Yang Ren (*1987) – Sinfonietta No. 1

Mads Schang Olsen (*1996) Fortalt tid (Narrated Time)

André de Sousa Vieira (*1976) – Reencontros
soloist Milda Drejerytė (soprano)
I “A Fada do meu jardim”
II “A Bússola”
III “Reencounter”

Oliver Dubon (*1997) – Satellites

Eladio Aguilar (*1997) – Recycled Deconstruction

Liisa Hõbepappel (*1994) – Hammered into Dust and Shards We’ll Lie
soloist Iris Oja (mezzo-soprano) 

The Church Bells of Pankovitsa. Pankovits village is located in Setomaa, on the territory of present-day Russia. The church suffered damage during the Estonian War of Independence and was completely destroyed in World War II in 1944. Finnish ethnomusicologist Armas Otto Väisänen visited Setomaa in 1913, recording, among other things, Mikk Semmen’s harpsichord playing, which imitated the sound of church bells. The piece was accompanied by a song with a Seto text “Pliine, vatsku, pliine, vatsku, oinapää, oinapää…”. In my work, I tried to capture the archaic sound of a folk song, without directly quoting it. Nor was my goal to capture the message of the text, but to capture the ringing of church bells as a symbolic foreshadowing of eternity. (Paul Daniel)

Sinfonietta No. 1. I tried to achieve beautiful and mysterious musical colours with limited instruments that are also used to imitate some natural sounds. The entire image can be viewed as someone wandering in a misty forest. (Yang Ren)

Fortalt tid is Danish and means “narrated time”. When you read a story, you can both acknowledge how long the time span of the story is (narrated time) and how slowly or quickly it’s narrated (narration time). Some stories are short but told over a long timespan and vice versa.

This piece is a series of short movements, each representing a state of stillness without a clear dramatical curve. This might remove the listener’s sense of time but also shorten or lengthen each movement depending on how interesting the listener finds the music or what kind of mental state the music evokes. (Mads Schang Olsen)

Reencontros (Reencounters) is a set of three short poems (“Fairy of my garden”, “The Compass” and “Reencounter”) for soprano and chamber orchestra, where the composer explores inner experiences through abstract thinking. (André de Sousa Vieira)

I A Fada do meu jardim
Veio docemente,
e com ternura aconchegou… guiou.

O mistério ficou,
Eu apenas senti.

II A Bússola
Agulha do Norte,
de espaços não antes sentidos.

Agulha dos sonhos,
guia da meta.

III Reencontro
O tempo para,
o som do silêncio vibra,
a harmonia invade o espaço.

O mistério dilui-se no chegar.
O Reencontro acontece.
(Text: André de Sousa Vieira)

Satellites – this is a work where material orbits around the orchestra like satellites. The title is an abbreviation of the phrase “satellite state,” which is something I have been thinking about a lot during my recent move to Estonia. I was shocked at the waning influence of the former Soviet Union, and the strong American influence which was taking its place. Thrift stores are full of old Soviet wear while hamburger joints and hipster cafes line the streets. Furthermore, I was interested in the ongoing identity crisis which so many Estonians made clear to me in my introduction to the country.

A semi-shared culture with the Nordics piles on top of the relations with the Baltics, all while being caught in the middle of the post-cold war tensions between the US and Russia. It is beautiful to see that, beyond all these bizarre tugs-of-war of influence Estonia finds itself between, the country manages to shine brightly above that influence. As this work progresses, I hope to abstractly depict this staying true to oneself, which I admire so much about this beautiful country. (Oliver Dubon)

Recycled Deconstruction. Nowadays we have this responsibility to take care of our world by recycling. Because we want to leave behind a better world for our future generations. But what happens when we think about recycling, not only in light of the future but also past consequences? What we did in the past has caused our present situation and will also impact our future.

I took a melody from my string quintet Sadreuc and a motif from my Brass Quintet in E to give them the opportunity to reinvent themselves, to be recycled. For what? For the same reason as we recycle trash – for a better future.

This just explains my life right now. A combination between who I was and how I am evolving from my past. In other words, I am recycling myself. (Eladio Barreto Aguilar)

Hammered into dust and shards we’ll lie. A while ago I happened to read the poetry of 11th-century poet Shmuel HaNagid. The goal of Peter Cole, the translator of these originally Hebrew lines reached me, is to translate poetry without losing its poetic reality. He has transferred these thoughts into free verse and into today. HaNagid’s poetry combines the Jewish and Arabian aesthetics – the Muslim Iberian world with the classical heritage of Greece. The vibrant symbiosis of these millennium-old layers speaks volumes even today. The plate at the end of the poem, shattered into shards and dust, is a widespread Arabian image symbolizing the frailty of life. (Liisa Hõbepappel)

Gazing Through the Night
Gazing through the
night and its stars,
or the grass and its bugs,

I know in my heart these swarms
are the craft of surpassing wisdom.
Think: the skies
resemble a tent,
stretched taut by loops
and hooks;

and the moon with its stars,
a shepherdess,
on a meadow
grazing her flock;

and the crescent hull in the looser clouds

looks like a ship being tossed;

a whiter cloud, a girl
in her garden
tending her shrubs;

and the dew coming down is her sister
shaking water
from her hair onto the path;

as we
settle in our lives,

like beasts in their ample stalls –

fleeing our terror of death,

like a dove
its hawk in flight –

though we’ll lie in the end like a plate,
hammered into dust and shards.
(Shmuel HaNagid (u 993–1056), tõlkinud Peter Cole)

The Sinfonietta of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre is the academy’s student orchestra. Characteristically of an education institution, the membership is not fixed and the sinfonietta comes together when necessary. Sometimes, musicians from professional collectives are also invited to help out. Besides classical repertoire, the sinfonietta performs compositions by young composers; moreover, the orchestra often performs under the baton of conductors who are still studying the trade. The conductor of this concert, however, is Toomas Vavilov. 

The sinfonietta will premiere works by the students of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre completed during this academic year under the guidance of composers Helena Tulve, Tõnu Kõrvits, Toivo Tulev and René Eespere.