Bráð and BBCSO

So it´s been a while. Moving to my new place in Tooting, London has taken it´s toll but has been totally worth it, and more. Living with beautiful people, in a beautiful place. Now, back to work.

I was selected recently for a GSMD / BBCSO collaboration (*Guildhall School / BBC symphony orchestra). I´m writing for an octet of GSMD postgrads and BBCSO players along with Dmus composers Goncalo Gato (Portugal) and Elizabeth Ogonek (USA) with tutoring from Julian Phillips & Matthew King. The workshop was last Wednesday 13th at BBC´s studios, Maida Vale, London. The concert will be March 15th, 7pm at Maida Vale studios and broadcasted. More on that soon.



My piece has received the title Bráð which is an interesting word, since it has many meanings based on it´s context:

NOUN (FEMININE)

1.  prey; game; kill; quarry; chase;

2.  victim;

3. present; moment;

4. dripping;

5. slush;

In this instance, the context relates to all those meanings but the main reference is the retreat of Snæfellsjökull, an Icelandic glacier. The music is therefore "A glacier´s requiem".

More information about the retreating of Snæfellsjökull

The surface of the Snæfellsjökull ice cap in western Iceland was mapped with airborne LiDAR

in 2008. A comparison with a DTM from 1999 derived by aerial photogrammetry shows that the surface of the ice cap has been lowered by 14.0 m on average during this nine year period, corresponding to an annual average mass loss of 1.25 mw.e. per year when a correction has been made for the different timing of the LiDAR survey and the aerial photographs. The area of the ice cap was reduced from 12.5 km2 in 2002 to 10.0 km2 in 2008. [...]

Snæfellsjökull is only 30 m, most of the ice cap is likely to disappear within a few decades if the warm climate of Iceland in recent years persists. The LiDAR DTM has been successfully used to delineate the location of crevasses with an automated procedure based on the calculation of the local curvature of the ice surface.

(Reference: Tómas Jóhannesson, Helgi Björnsson, Finnur Pálsson, 

Oddur Sigurðsson and Þorsteinn Þorsteinsson;

LiDAR mapping of the Snæfellsjökull ice cap,western Iceland; research article)

Here the glacier can be seen from across the bay from Reykjavik, Iceland´s capital.

I also use text/poems (with minor alterations) from the Icelandic sagas for inspiration which lists topographical names from the area:

Sæl væri eg

ef sjá mættag

Búrfell og Bala,

báða Lóndranga,

Aðalþegnshóla

og Öndvertnes,

Heiðarkollu

og Hreggnasa,

Dritvík og möl

[og drifhvítan jökulinn.]

(Helga, Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss)