Time and Water
I. Ata whenua ~ Land of reflections (piano, cello and violin)
II. Luxe, calme et volupté (chamber orchestra)
III. Le Temps et l’eau: Aquarelle (baroque string quartet)
Time and Water I: Ett drömspel
Commissioned by the Sydney Philharmonia Choir
Inspired by August Strindberg’s Dreamplay, Time and Water I is a journey through a dreamscape painted in water. As in a dream, seemingly unrelated memories, feelings, desires, arise from the deep sea of the subconscious to create a narrative merging reality with imagination. Anything may happen, everything is possible.
Arriving and receding like waves upon a shifting shore, fragments from Steinn Steinarr’s anthology Tíminn og Vatnið, Charles Baudelaire’s L’Invitation au Voyage flow into lines from Strindberg’s play to create the drömspel of Time and Water I.
Tíminn (Ic.: time, hour)
I … eyes half closed, closed
Flowing water, flowing from your eyes,
deep as the sea …
See far, far away
Come with me faraway!
Rising blue day, painted in water
tíminn draumi draumur (Ic.: dream, dreamer, dreaming)
Look, see the path,
steps worn by the faithful lover!
I’ve been waiting for you …
In distant dreams, roses grow in fields of snow
I hear drops falling, tears of lost souls …
Hidden in dreams, memories ebb and flow
under the sleeping sea …
Every time life smiled at me
I heard your voice, the sea, calling,
in the spiral shell of your ear …
All this, I’ve been dreaming
tíminn draumi
tíminn