Present Music Explores Nordic Sounds

Present Music invites the audience into a unique sound world, that of Nordic music, which often evolved independently of much of Europe.

The concert this Thursday evening at the Milwaukee Art Museum, “Northern Nights, Southern Nights,” also includes a brief nod to a South American genre featuring contemporary composer, singer, and pianist Clarice Assad, of the musical Assad family, whose roots are in Brazil.

This concert holds special significance to the co-artistic director Eric Segnitz who is half-Norwegian. “I think at some point in your life, your heritage sort of asserts itself, at least it did with me,” Segnitz explained. “And so I got interested in the music and the sound of these instruments because just the basic sound is so incredible. And there’s a big Scandinavian presence in the area we live. Half of my family came from the Dakotas, and there’s a huge enclave of Norskys up there. Some of the world’s best makers of these instruments live in Wisconsin. The Hardanger Fiddle Association of America holds their annual conference near Dodgeville every summer.”

Nordic folk music is not just about melody and dance rhythms. Sonics play a major role. The sound can be loud, joyous, or more ethereal and contemplative. The texture of the music is often found in the overtones, a full spectrum of sound. String instruments were created that enhanced the sound. The Hardanger fiddle is a four-string instrument that includes another four or five strings positioned just below the bowed strings. The sympathetic sounds from these resonant strings expand the sound and make the instrument louder. An even more unusual instrument, the Nyckelharpa, replaces the left hand on the instrument’s fingerboard with 36 keys that raise frets in fixed locations. The keys allow for rapid shifts in the music. Twelve sympathetic strings also enhance the sound. Segnitz suggests that these resonant instruments create a sound that reverberates amid the valley walls of deep Norwegian fjords.

Several guest performers will join the Present Music Ensemble.

Composer Dan Trueman will be joined by Dublin fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh playing the Norwegian Hardanger d’Amore for a world premiere of Midden Find. The Hardanger d’Amore has been recently created to extend the melodic range of a Hardanger fiddle to include the timbre of a viola. Trueman observes that the Hardanger resonant strings “sound best when in various scordatura, or cross-tunings as fiddlers call them, where the tuning of the bowed strings interact with the sympathetic strings to reinforce one another and create a perpetual, ringing glow.” Trueman will play a contemporary electronic instrument of his own design, the bitKlavier, a “prepared” keyboard that produces a wide range of programmed sounds and behaviors, well beyond what may appear to be a synthesizer.

Trueman and Ó Raghallaigh will also play selections from their album, The Fate of Bones.

Clarice Assad will also employ an electronic tool, the TC-Helicon, to modify her voice for Retro Pop, another world premiere of a commissioned work. The instrument creates distinct soundscapes that allow her to sing in impossible timbres. The three-movement work includes sections inspired singly by John Lennon, Michel Legrand, and Herbie Hancock. Retro Pop was commissioned by the Laskin Family Foundation in honor of Arthur and Nancy Laskin, who had been long-time supporters of Present Music.

Although she has worked with her father and uncle, the Assad Duo, on guitar-centric concerts, Clarice has contributed to a wide range of classical music. Her bio notes, “A powerful communicator renowned for her musical scope and versatility, Brazilian-American Clarice Assad is a significant artistic voice in the classical, world music, pop, and jazz genres. The Grammy Award–nominated composer, celebrated pianist, inventive vocalist, and educator is acclaimed for her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range. With her talent sought-after by artists and organizations worldwide, the polyglot musician continues to attract new audiences both onstage and off.” In addition to the Present Music premiere, her 2022–2023 season includes commissions by the Camerata Pacifica, Music Accord, the League of American Orchestras, the Oregon Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, LA Phil, Chamber Music America, the Fry Street Quartet, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Three other Nordic works complete the program:

Dance music is central to Spelpuma, an infectious work by Swedish composer Emilia Amper. Carla Kihlstedt, who entranced Present Music audiences with her creative composition, 26 Little Deaths, last June, will perform on a Nyckelharpa accompanied by the Present Music Ensemble.

The ensemble will also play Flight from the City by Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson. The work is described as “a contemplative work with themes of change, mutability, death, rebirth, and the elusive nature of beauty.”

Norwegian composer Kjell Habbestad‘s Quattro Stazioni will be played by an ensemble string quartet. The work emulates the sounds of a Hardanger fiddle through a continuous drone connecting the instruments of the quartet.

The additional resonance, the sustained sounds of drones, the continuity of composition and even the electronic features of some of the works should work especially well in the bright acoustics of Windhover Hall. Anticipate another immersive concert blending traditional, contemporary, and world-premiere sounds, a formula that serves Present Music well as a leading presenter of today’s music.

Present Music will perform at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 6, in Windhover Hall at the Milwaukee Art Museum, 700 N. Art Museum Dr.. The concert is timed to complement a special exhibit at the museum, Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980, available through July 23. Ticket holders may arrive early to visit the exhibit. Virtual tickets are also available for this concert. Tickets are not available online for this concert. Call 414-229-4308 or visit the PSOA box office at the Zelazo Center, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd., at the UW-Milwaukee campus.

For their last concert of the season, Present Music will join forces with Milwaukee Opera Theatre to co-present composer/singer/songwriter and multi-genre phenom Gabriel Kahane as he performs a live version of his introspective album Magnificent Bird backed by Present Music musicians. The concert is scheduled for May 31 and June 1 at the UW-Milwaukee Jan Serr Studio.