Kongsfjorden

Please find my latest musical composition, "Kongsfjorden" at this link: http://youtu.be/Tn3UngDw10I 

Besides just analyzing my settlement plates, I managed to write some music this week. I find I tend to compose most when I'm in a place with my laptop where there are few other options of ways to spend my free time. I also write when I feel very strongly about something. Each of my compositions are tied to a specific place and a time where I experienced something new. As you can imagine, all of these factors mean I compose a lot in the Arctic. So far, my trips to Svalbard (four trips since 2011) have produced four movements for a violin concerto about the Arctic. The video above features the fourth movement, titled "Kongsfjorden," which I just finished. If you missed them, the previous three movements were posted on this blog in September. Find them here, here, and here.

When I write music, I don't use any specific formula. I don't think about what structure a piece is supposed take, where the climax is going to be - none of that. I just write. I scribble out a couple measures, listen to them a thousand times, and then hear in my head what should come next. A lot of times, I end up convinced that I have not in fact written the music at all; rather, it wrote itself. It's as if the piece was floating somewhere in the air, and I am merely the cold glass on which it chose to condense.

When I started writing "Kongsfjorden," I started with a jagged solo violin line to mirror the mountain peaks that surround the fjord. The piece then took over and developed itself in a way, and I hope you can appreciate the result. As with all my works, please turn up the bass on your speakers or use well-isolated headphones to make sure you hear the cello part. Happy listening!