News

“Fra naturens bok’ (45’) (Sander Tingstad, violin; Berit Opheim, singer; Frode Haltli, accordion; Sebastiaan Molenaar, percussion): WP Tromsø, Verdensteateret, 30.01. More performances:

Mosjøen: 02.07. Bergen 25.8

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‘Shadows’ Dreams’ (Skyggers drøm) with Trondheimsolistene Trondheim 01.02, Sunndalsøra 02.02.

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‘Every minute opens doors’ (11’) (Lenneke Ruiten, Soprano; Guro Klaven Hagen, violin; Jacob Koranyi,cello; Marianna Shirinian, piano): WP: Galway (Ireland) 21.05. More performances: Ytterjârna (Sweden) 16.06, Valdres Sommersymfoni (Norway) 23.06, Piano Biennale Arnhem (Nederland) April 2025

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‘Vare Jo’ (7’) (Vocal Sextet: Nordic Voices). WP Kautokeino 27.03. With Ingor Antte Aiilu Gaup.

‘Du çabbodaga’ (Vocal Sextet: Nordic Voices). Kautokeino 27.03. With Ingor Antte Aiilu Gaup.

More performances: Hvide Sande (Denmark) 12.08, 13.08. Late Summer Festival at Hvide Sande, Denmark

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Tibi Canto (8’) (Helge Slaatto,Violin; Mette Stæhr, piano) 12.08 .Late Summer Festival at Hvide Sande, Denmark

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WP. New Work for violin and double bass (Helge Slaatto and Frank Reinecke). 14.08. Late Summer Festival at Hvide Sande, Denmark

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Tre fengselsdikt av Mahvash Sabet (15’) (sang: Unni Løvlid, cello: Marianne B. Lie). Performances in Stockholm (Sweden) 23.02, Trondheim (Norway) 24.02, Reykjavik (18.02 Iceland).

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Lectures, seminars, and masterclasses on musical interpretation and aural sonology: 02.-05.04. The Norwegian Academy of Music

In 2023 I think I composed more music than during any previous year. As I am no longer teaching at the Norwegian Academy of Music and, moreover, have not written research papers for publication, I have had the opportunity to concentrate on composing.

Early in the year, I finished a score in collaboration with the Sami yoik-singer Ingor Antte Aillu Gaup, written for Nordic Voices. I met Aillu in Switzerland during the Klangwelt Toggenburg festival 2022, and he told me he’d always wanted a polyphonic yoik (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joik ). I offered my service…. There were workshops with him and the Nordic Voices. Aillu had written a beautiful poem for which he had made a melody in the style of traditional yoik. As a result, the work Du çabbodaga was created. It was premiered in August during Oslo Chamber Music Festival. It received a good review in by Maren Ørstavik – a full page in Aftenposten – in which she discussed whether the piece represented a case of cultural appropriation, and fortunately she concluded it was not. The score can be found here: https://www.editionpolaris.no/product/ep20215a/

However, the discussion of whether I am guilty of cultural appropriation resurged later in the autumn in an essay written by Erik Dæhlin and published in the web-journal Ballade https://www.ballade.no/kunstmusikk/komposisjon-og-appropriasjon/ . I presented my thoughts on the subject in an essay published a few days later with the title Appropriation vs. learning. https://www.ballade.no/politikk-debatt/lasse-thoresen-tanker-om-laering-vs-appropriasjon-i-en-flerkulturell-virkelighet/

I had a request in March, one I could not resist: Guro Kleven Hagen / Valdres sommersymfoni wanted me to write a piece for the Songs of Travel project, - a project designed to create empathy with migrants. Part of the contract was that I should visit reception centers for refugees and interview a few of them. I found a captivating poem written by Vladimir Levchev called The Refugee which I set to music. An ensemble of star soloists will perform the work in Ireland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands: Guro Kleven Hagen (violin), Jacob Koranyi (cello), Marianne Shirinian (piano), and Lenneke Ruiten (soprano).

I managed to fit in this commission before beginning a major work, commissioned by Sander Tingstad, a young violinist playing in the Arctic Philharmonic. He included my solo violin piece YR in his debut CD. He started a project called Kunstmusikken og folkesjela –Art music and the peoples’ soul – and the commission was part of this project. Together we put together an ensemble of wonderful musicians: Berit Opheim (folk-singer), Frode Haltli (accordion), Sebastiaan Molenaar (melodic percussion) and of course Sander himself. Since my writing The Sound of the Arctic a few years earlier I developed a special regard for nature: Nature appears to me more and more as a miracle, a great wonder – thus ultimately as something holy, revealing a reality that transcends it physical reality. So I chose a text written by Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892) that is expressive of this perspective. Without telling the musicians about the text, I asked them to make an improvisation inspired by the natural elements occurring in the text, and so I had several interesting ideas to inspire me before starting to compose. The result was a 45 minutes’ long piece called Fra Naturens Bok (From the Book of Nature) which I finished in December, just in time to have materials ready for the world premiere in Tromsø in January.

However, there were also a few performances of my music during 2023:

In January my rather new flute trio ‘Strains from hither and Yonder’ was performed in Drøbak by Maiken Schau, Trond Schau and Audun Sandvik.

In March my piece ‘Tibi Canto’ for scordatura violin and piano was premiered in Koncertkirken, København. The piece was commissioned by Helge Slaatto, as part of his project to commission modern ‘romances’ for violin and piano and performed by him and Mette Stæhr. They also performed the music in antroposofisk selskab, and during the music festival in Hvide Sande.

Marianne Baudoin Lie (violoncello) and Unni Løvlid (song) performed ‘Tre Fengselsdikt’ with texts by Mahvash Sabet several times.

In May Løp, Lokk og Linjer, an hourlong piece for sinfonietta and folk singer that I wrote in 2002, was performed by BiT20 and Berit Opheim during the KODY festival in Lublin, Poland.

My ØKOFANFARE for flute and soundtrack was performed in September by Maiken Schau during the opening of the Arne Næss Symposium, the institution that actually had commissioned the piece from me ten years ago as an opening fanfare for this event. The flutist Trine Knutsen made a new version of the piece for four flutes, performed in April in Stormen concert house, Bodø, by herself, Elisabeth K. Eide, Ellen M. Jenssen, and Dejan Gavric.

Other significant events during 2023:

29 March I received the Music Publishers’ Prize (Musikkforleggerprisen).

9 March an anthology on music and religion was presented officially during an arrangement in Litteratur-huset, Oslo. My essay was called: Unity in Music and Religion. A Pansemiotic Enquiry.

https://press.nordicopenaccess.no/index.php/noasp/catalog/book/177 .

The new wave of the pandemic caused a number of performances to be cancelled during spring.  I could spend time composing and writing an academic paper. But during the autumn a number of exciting things happened, such as the WP performance of my large, and ultimate work for symphony orchestra and the release of the recording of a major orchestral work.

The work with the new piece for orchestra and chorus took place in 2019. It was commissioned by Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra for their 100 years’ jubilee during the season 2019-2020.  Because of the pandemic, the piece was taken off the program.  Eventually, the orchestra saw a chance to program it as its contribution to the Ultima Festival 2022.  Conductor Peter Szilvay had done a diligent job in preparing the score. Led by him the excellent musicians of Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in combination with selected members of the Symphonic choir of the Oslo Philharmonic reinforced by ensemble 96, gave an impeccable performance of the work, which is entitled WN: Det værende op. 63 (det værende =Being).  The music was supposed to reflect the eternal, sustaining Being – not the being things we perceive – but that universal, founding dimension that underlies existence and unifies all creation.  This may seem overambitious and impossible, but the idea came through to many in the audience, much to my surprise: I received innumerable reactions from the listeners that relate their (more or less) transcendent experience of the music.  Fortunately, the concert was recorded by LAWO, and a CD with this piece and my symphonic cello concerto op. 38 (with the supremely gifted Amalie Stalheim as soloist) will be released in 2023.

Late in October, the recording of LYDEN AV ARKTIS op. 54 - a major work of mine - was released on: 2L .  The piece was commissioned by Arktisk Filharmoni in 2013, and has been a major labor of love going on through several years, on and off, including several expeditions to Spitzbergen.  The music is available on the net, including YouTube.  https://orcd.co/lyden-av-arktis . The physical CD can be purchased with 2L 2L@lindberg.no The producer, Morten Lindberg, has made a sound-production that by itself is an exquisite work of phonography.  Pictures of the recordings that took place in Bodø’s concert house Stormen, can be seen here https://www.lindberg.no/gallery-2l-169/

I spent much time writing a little philosophical essay for the booklet attending the CD. https://www.2L.no/e-book/2L169.pdf

There have been innumerable and positive reviews of the music.

 During the beginning of May I was able to attend Klangwelt Toggenburg in Switzerland as a festival composer and lecturer.  Nordic Voices were invited, and performed by music.  Christian Zehnder whom I earlier engaged in the Concrescence Project with the Latvian Radio Choir, was the festival director. He could tell about the exciting plans for a Klanghaus – dedicated to overtone-music and yodeling, as well as composition classes.  The local yodeling tradition made a great impression on me, and as a result, following a discussion with the overtone singer and scholar, Wolfgang Saus, I wrote a piano piece when I returned:  Vertical Music.  It is relatively easy to play, so I placed it in opus 33, with older piano music of moderate difficulty.

In 2021 I wrote a flute trio (altoflute alt. piccolo, scordatura tuned violoncello, prepared piano) entitled Strains from Hither and Yonder.  Its WP had been postponed a number of times, and finally, in the beginning of September, it was excellently performed by Maiken Schau, Trond Schau and Audun Sandvik in two concerts (Moss and Sarpsborg), arranged by Ny Musikk Østfold.  At these concerts, a major chamber work I wrote in 1976 was also performed: Hagen op. 5.  Conductor Peter Szilvay had brought together a fine ensemble, including his wife, Ingeborg Gillebo, as vocal soloist.

In August the sad news arrived that Mahvash Sabet had again been imprisoned in Iran with many other Bahái’s.  I have earlier written music to her Prison Poems (translated by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani), both Prison Poems op. 53 (2017), and Tre Fengselsdikt op. 58 (2020), the latter in Arne Ruste’s Norwegian translation.  I have met her a few times.  I was just awestruck by her spiritual strength: Here is somebody who survived 10 years of imprisonment and torture in Iranian prison, yet comes out radiating a transcendent love completely devoid of hatred and bitterness.  Now the Iranian authorities imprisoned her again, ‘for not having learnt her lesson’.  Her arrest grieved me enormously, and so I spent the month of August composing a piece for mixed choir or vocal sextet based on one of Mahvash’ most wonderful poems, one in which she explains that incredible vision of the unity of the world enabling her to practice an unconditional love.  Illusory Distinctions is the name of the piece.  I am still looking for a choir to perform it…

For their seasonal opening concert Bergen Symphony and Edward Gardener had programmed my orchestral work:  Emergence.  Luohti Boa∂e! op. 28, and gave it a fantastic performance. 

In October I spent a few days in Praha, invited by the organization ‘Platform for Singing’.  I had been part of a jury in a choral competition, and a one of my choral works, The Light that is Shed from the Heaven of Bounty op. 27:4, was performed by the Kühn Choir. 

I have written two academic papers during the last one-and-a half year that both were published this autumn.  One is a continuation of the Aural Sonology Project (www.auralsonology.com). The article is called Energy in Music.  An Inventory of Observations and Ideas.  It can be obtained here: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/leuven/mta/2022/00000009/00000001/art00004

The other article deals with philosophical and metaphysical perspectives on music: Unity in Music and Religion. A Pansemiotic Enquiry.  It is available here:  https://press.nordicopenaccess.no/index.php/noasp/catalog/book/177

Despite the pandemic, the year 2021 turned out to be productive as far as my own writing and composing were concerned, and there were also a few notable concert events and released recordings, although many concerts were cancelled due to the pandemic.

A major piece for string orchestra, Shadows’ Dreams op. 55, was performed at Festspillene i Bergen by Trondheimsolistene, led by Geir Inge Lotsberg. I had rewritten the score previously, and the improved version turned out to be satisfactory. Geir Inge made a video interview with me about the piece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LNQ0fex6-c&t=1s , and the professional recording of the work was published at Fabra FBRCD-22, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4nDhSvZycQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MUyUKsGNlg .

The violinist Gregory Maytan wanted a work by me for solo violin, and in 2019 I wrote a piece called Quietly Turning, in a style inspired by the Norwegian fiddle music called Lyar slått. I used rhythmical proportions according to the Fibonacci series, and intonation close to natural harmonics. Greg gave the world premiere of the piece during the Belvedere festival in Memphis in August this year. Having heard his excellent performance I decided (as I often do after a good first performance) to rework the piece - which I did this year, and a new version is waiting for its first performance this spring.

In September I had another WP during the Ultima festival: Tre fengselsdikt av Mahvash Sabet. These are written for folksinger voice and cello. I used texts by my favourite poet Mahvash Sabet in Norwegian translation by Arne Ruste. The pieces were very well performed by Unni Løvlid and Marianne B. Lie who also commissioned the music.

I was happy to have a couple of recordings of my music released: Two of my invocations for solo piano were brilliantly performed by Ieva Jokubaviciute on her CD Northscapes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ufPPiRFIp8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrIbKQ_LhzA

A recording of my grand symphonic cello concerto ‘Viaggio attraverso tre valli’ was released on the web. The concerto was brilliantly and passionately performed by the fantastic Amalie Stalheim, accompanied by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Ingar Bergby.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzda3Kh3Mwg

FIRST MOVEMENT, RICERCARE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2TVyZgJ7Uo

SECOND MOVEMENT, SERENATA, FUGA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uu1JDY9Cdc

THIRD MOVEMENT, FINALE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XADyTeN_TiU

I spent several months composing a new work for flute, cello and piano: Strains from Hither and Yonder, commissioned by Maiken Mathiesen Schau, Trond Schau, and Audun Sandvik, exploring new sound-characters produced by extended techniques for all instruments. The planned WP in Sandane, Gloppen was cancelled because of the Omikron outbreak, and so was the next scheduled performance in Copenhagen during the Njord-festival. A performance will hopefully take place this spring, nevertheless.

I am presently working on several new compositions for Nordic Voices, following up the first piece I wrote for them in 2006, Diphonie I, with a number of new diphonies. While writing the first of these, I received the sad message that Tran Quang Hai, who instructed Nordic Voices in overtone singing (‘diphonic chant’) 2004 – 2006 had passed away; so I dedicated this piece to his memory.

Moreover, I finished two papers on music theory and -philosophy, both still awaiting peer review. And I wrote a new and hopefully easier introduction to Aural Sonology “Introduksjon til klingende former”.

The years 2019-2020 were in many ways the peak of my musical career; that is to say, a lot of it collapsed during 2020. In 2019 my 70th birthdays was celebrated with an incredible event at the Norwegian Academy of Music arranged by my dear wife, Britt Strandlie Thoresen, and I was accorded a medal from the King (Kongens Fortjenestemedalje). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNtpr1jQrR8&t=10s

I finished the composing of what shall be the crowning of my orchestral production by a final, major work:  – Det værende, commissioned by Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. This work is the end of an orchestral journey that began with a symphonic cello concerto (Viaggio attraverso tre valli; 2008), and continued through a symphonic viola-concerto (La valle dell’unità; 2011), a symphonic piano-concerto (Cittá della luce; 2017), and the symphonic movements written as part of the Sound of the Arctic (La terra meravigliosa; 2019). However, the WP was cancelled because of the Covid19 lock-down. Fortunately, the Oslo Philharmonic was able to perform my symphonic cello-concerto as part of the Ultima Festival in September, and a good recording was made - to be published with the recording company LAWO during 2021. Amalie Stalheim proved to be a fantastic performer, I think she is heading towards a great career!

The lockdown allowed me the silence and concentration write a major piano piece: Invocation of Earth in the Reflection of Glory. It was given a brilliant first-performance by Yejin Gil on the web. http://vbwpthoresen.virtuoso.events/

The year 2020 allowed for a couple of essays and papers to be written and published:

ØRETS ETTERTANKE – REFLEKTERT LYTTING.

https://nmh.no/aktuelt/orets-ettertanke-reflektert-lytting

STILLHETEN ER LYDSINNETS HIMMELHVELVING

https://press.nordicopenaccess.no/index.php/noasp/catalog/book/115

I also gave a major interview in Eldbjørg Hemsing’s web-site:

https://eldbjorghemsing.com/nordics-unveiled-podcast/nordics-unveiled-lasse-thoresen/

In 2021 I hope to witness the first performance of a set of pieces I wrote for Unni Løvlid and Marianne Lie with texts by Mahvash Sabet. I also hope the violinist Gregory Maytan will be able to perform a piece I dedicated to him (Quietly Turning). Moreover, I wrote a new, hopefully improved version of Skyggers Drøm for string orchestra this spring – and I hope circumstances will allow for a performance of it as well as a recording. I am also supposed to give presentations at Klangwelt Toggenburg in Switzerland with focus on overtones and overtone singing. Nordic Voices have been invited to perform my works.

I am planning to write quite a few chamber music works…

As to research I have been much encouraged by a collaboration between Erlend Hovland and Njål Ølnes. We started a series of encounters at the school with the overall thematic: Ear in Music; unfortunately, it has closed down after a couple of arrangements because of the pandemic. But we are planning a project that may last for some years: a presentation of Aural Sonology adapted to different pedagogical requirements. In addition, I am this year the main speaker in the Norwegian Academy’s annual seminar Current Trends in Music Theory and Pedagogic, and in this connection I have written a major paper to appear in Music Theory and Analysis, with the title: Energy in Music – observations and ideas