Bjørn Morten Christophersen

Bjørn Morten Christophersen

Photo: Morten Lindberg

Composer
& arranger

Concerto for violin and Strings

Recorded by Ai-Ling Chiu,
Telemark Chamber Orchestra,
Per Kristian Skalstad (conductor)

  • Concerto for Violin and Strings was composed for the Taiwanese violinist Ai-Ling-Chiu. The concerto was premiered at Ålesund Chamber Music Festival in 2017 by an orchestra consisting of Taiwanese and Norwegian musicians.

    Chiu came up with the idea of using the song Longing for your return as an element to give the work a personal touch. This melody was used as a song for freedom during World War II. Chiu has studied and performed in many parts of the world, and Christophersen is particularly interested in musical narrativity, i.e. a narrative thread that does not necessarily have any extra-musical references. Therefore, ideas such as ‘identity’ and ‘musical journey’ presented themselves at an early stage of the composition process.

    Throughout the work the Taiwanese melody is hinted at, woven together with my own material. The final movement develops towards a form of deliverance or resolving, as would be expected of a virtuoso solo concerto. But instead, the musical momentum stagnates, dissolving into the Taiwanese melody that is the goal of the musical narrative. This made a particular impression on the audience at the two performances in Taiwan in 2018.

    The concerto consists of three movements, Unfolding, Air, and Return. The second and third movements are played attacca, separated by a solo cadenza for the violin. While the Taiwanese melody serves as a point of reference for the structure of the work, for those who do not know the melody, smaller motivic building blocks are more instantly recognizable: minor sixths, both arpeggiated and in chordal form (often occurring as an interval of a major chord in first inversion), and an upward-moving tritone gesture consisting of a major third followed by a major second. In melodic form, these brief motifs serve as points of reference throughout the musical narrative.

    The languid, dreamy second movement Air continues to develop these motifs along with fragments of the Taiwanese melody, until the pensive atmosphere is punctured by fortissimo crushed tone clusters, effectively ending the dream-like state. There follows a more restless, urgent section that leads seamlessly into the candenza. Echoing the theme of identity, the cadenza makes a brief, frenzied visit to traditional Norwegian fiddle folk music; a fortissimo pizzicato interruption in the lower strings marks the transition to the energetic third movement Return. The concluding chorale gathers harmonic

    momentum towards its home key of E minor, while the cello plays a condensed counterpoint in which we hear the aforementioned motivic material one last time. The melancholic Taiwanese melody sits on top of harmonies that hint at a Norwegian national romantic idiom, thus uniting themes of identity and musical journey; the unsettled harmonies are laid to rest and there is a sense of homecoming in the final, fully resolved E major chord.

    Album liner notes by Andrew Smith

  • The album begins with "Concerto for violin and strings" by Bjørn Morten Christophersen (b. 1976) - a composer who constantly arouses excitement among both audiences and critics. At the latest in 2022, he an album together with the same orchestra in the oratorio "The Lapse of Time" - a work that has been highly appreciated both on record and in the concert hall. On this disc, there is, however, a violin concerto with the very talented Ai-Ling Chiu as soloist. Parts of the work is based on the Taiwanese song "Longing for your return". And it is exciting to hear how Christophersen weaves this work. Because it is indeed weaving it is. Fragments of the song can be found again in the work and towards the end the composer makes an ingenious move. Instead of a wonderfully uplifting ending, the delicate melody comes in a subdued and beautiful package. All brilliantly performed by a particularly fine soloist.

    Trond Erikson in Den klassiske CD-bloggen.
    Read more

what does it really mean to listen?

Photo: Thomas Wolden

The Lapse of Time

- an oratorio on Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species

Recorded by Ditte M. Bræin, Frank Havrøy, Inger-Lise Ulsrud, Ensemble 96, Telemark Chamber Orchestra, Nina T. Karlsen / Per Kristian Skalstad | Simax Classics
Nominated to Spellemann 2022 (Norwegian Grammy)

  • The Lapse of Time is an all-evening oratorio based on strikingly poetic excerpts from Darwin's revolutionary book On the origin of species written by the Norwegian composer Bjørn Morten Christophersen. The work is a tribute to the evolution of life on earth and intended for musical sharing between natural science, religion and art.

    Indeed, it is surprising to find a vein of poetry running through a dissertation of natural science. But that is in fact the case with Darwin's iconic book, which at the same time is one of the most ground-breaking scientific works ever written. The book is truly worth reading for any layman. That one cannot really say about Einstein's theory of relativity or all the articles pouring out of the various universities today. Christophersen has set music to excerpts from The Origin of Species after carefully adapting them into singable phrases. Nevertheless, nothing is added, we hear only Darwin's own words in this oratorio. 

    The Lapse of Time is a large-scale musical drama in which two soloists, choir and orchestra move through slow-building waves from the barely audible to magnificent climaxes. The work is full of life: we really feel the crawl and crabbing within the orchestra while the singers chant an astonishingly poetic text, taking its origin into consideration. Profound, playful, dramatic and humorous passages are woven together in a large organic musical course. The Lapse of Time also has a sacred flavor to it by involving both the church organ and mimics of plainchant. Through this work, Christophersen hopes to create a basis for shared wonder and excitement between natural science and religion.

    Life on earth has developed through a time span far beyond our own to emerge as overwhelmingly rich and complex as we see it today. This idea was a completely new realization in Darwin's time, and it met strong opposition especially from the church. And it is still controversial in many circles today. After all, we can't easily grasp billions of years in our consciousness. So how can we experience that minor changes from one generation to the next can result in such a diversity? Perhaps through music? For music is the very form of art suitable for experiencing time in various ways. In this work, for instance, the orchestra and choir initiate a dialogue with their own past, that is, with parts of the work we have already heard. Music from our memory emerges into our presence and affects the future of our "now", so to speak.

    Nominated to Spellemannsprisen (Norwegian Grammy) 2022 in category Composers' Prize

  • based on
    Charles Darwin: On the Origin of Species (1859)

    adapted by
    Bjørn Morten Christophersen

    PART I: WATCH THE SEA AT WORK
    Watch the sea at work
    grinding down old rocks.
    making fresh sediment

    Extremely slow

    The lapse of time
    the monuments around us

    Long lines of inland cliffs formed
    great valleys excavated 
    by the slow action
    of the coastal waves                              

    The lapse of time
    the monuments around us

    From the first dawn of life
    all organic beings
    resemble each other
    in descending degrees
    classed in groups under groups

    For species have changed
    and are still slowly changing
    successive slight favourable variations
    a slowly changing drama
    One species given birth to other

    They all fall into one
    grand natural system

    The lapse of time
    the monuments around us

    PART II: STRUGGLE FOR LIFE
    Struggle for life
    Struggle for existence

    Innumerable beings
    on the face of this earth
    struggle with each other
    in the race for life

    Severe competition
    through the course
    of thousands of generations

    The lapse of time
    the monuments around us

    Every single organic being is
    striving to increase in numbers
    yet, all cannot do so
    for the world would not hold them

    Let the strongest live and the weakest die

    INTERLUDE 1: MISTLETOE
    Mistletoe struggles
    with other fruit-bearing plants
    to tempt birds

    As the mistletoe is disseminated by birds
    its existence depends on birds
    it struggles with other fruit-bearing plants
    to tempt birds

    Some speciesmay be nowincreasingin numbers
    yet all cannot do so
    for the world would not hold them

    Even slow-breeding man
    there will not be room for his progeny

    PART III: CHANGE
    Evolve! Change!
    to beauty and infinite complexity
    Remarkable fact!
    beauty and infinite complexity     

    The lapse of time
    the monuments around us

    Natural selection
    is daily and hourly scrutinising
    silently and insensibly working
    throughout the world

    We see nothing of these
    slow changes in progress
    until the hand of time has marked
    the long lapse of ages

    A grain in the balance
    determines
    which shall live
    and which shall die

    For those which do not change
    will become extinct

    PART IV: EXTINCTION                    
    Like the branching of a great tree
    from a single stem
    extinction
    widening the intervals
    extinction
    widening the gaps
    between species                         

    All living species
    connected
    with parent-species now extinct
    connected
    with more ancient species

    Inconceivably great number
    of intermediate and transitional links
    between living and extinct
    Such have lived upon this earth

    This wonderful relationship
    between the dead and the living

    INTERLUDE 2: BONES                       Bones!
    -in the wing of the bat
    -in the flipper of the seal
    -fin of a porpoise
    -in the fore leg of the horse
    -in the arm of the monkey
    -in the hand of a man
    inherited from a common progenitor

    Blind animals in caves:
    the eye is gone!
    Convert a swim bladder into a lung
    Remarkable fact!

    Natural selection is daily and hourly working
    throughout the world

    PART V: NATURA NON FACIT SALTUM
    (NATURE MAKES NO LEAP)
    During the vast periods of time
    before Silurian age and the present day
    the world swarmed with living creatures

    What an infinite number of generations
    which the mind cannot grasp
    must have succeeded each other
    in the long roll of years
    Slight successive favourable variations
    only by very short and slow steps
    a slowly changing drama

    ”Natura non facit saltum”

    The lapse of time
    the monuments around us

    The mind cannot grasp
    a hundred million years
    it cannot perceive the effects
    of slight variations
    through an infinite number of generations

    For the lapse of time
    has been so great
    as to be utterly inappreciable
    by the human intellect

    Extremely slow
    The lapse of time
    the monuments around us

    EPILOGUE
    Look! Watch! Admire!
    the truly wonderful power
    of natural selection
    around us!

    Look! Watch! Admire!
    the sea at work
    the flipper of a seal
    the fin of a porpoise
    the mistletoe, the birds
    the remarkable fact
    Around us!

    All speciescannot increase
    for the world would not hold them
    even man, there will
    not be room for his progeny

    Look! Watch!
    Admire us!
    the human mind!
    the intellect!

    Look! Watch! Admire!
    the wonderful struggle for life
    the hand of time
    the beauty and infinite complexity
    the monuments of which we see
    around us

    Around us!

  • Review in Gramophone. Brian Morton , 28.6.2023

    So original and convincing that any concern about rock-opera cliché quickly disappears

    An oratorio based on Darwin's On The Origin Of Species might seem to risk predictability more than than obscurity, but Christophersen's handling of large masses of time, the slow geological changes of ‘Part 1: Watch The Sea At Work’, is so original and convincing that any concern about rock-opera cliché quickly disappears. What makes the music urgent and sets it apart is that the whole scenario has shifted towards the spectre of extinction as the endgame of natural selection, something Darwin had not quite anticipated, but rendered all the more poignant and dramatic by the work's preparation and premiere being played out against the background of global pandemic. The choir brings a thrilling commitment to the singing and Sean Lewis's sound design (which alone justifies the comparison with rock-music projects of similar ambition) is immaculate.

    Read reviews from Tiden Krav here

    Read reviews from Klassekampen here

Krigsseilerrekviem

Premiered by Tora Augestad (mezzo), Thorbjørn Guldbrandsøy (tenor), Magnus Ingemund Kjelstad (baritone), Magne Fremmelid (bass), The Norwegian Opera Chorus (Martin Wettges, choralmaster), The Royal Norwegian Navy Band, Bjarte Engeset (conductor) at Oslo Concert Hall, May 31th 2022.
Nominated to WORK OF THE YEAR 2024 BY Norwegian Composers’ Society

  • Royal Norwegian Navy Band has been a significant supporter of the war sailors’ cause for many years. “War Sailor's Requiem” was commissioned for The Royal Norwegian Navy Band 's 200th anniversary in 2020. The anniversary coincides with the 75th anniversary of the truce in 1945.

    I have composed the Libretto based on many different sources. Most of the text is the war sailor’s own words taken from letters, diaries, memoirs, or interviews. Naturally, I have had to shorten and adjust the texts to adapt for song.

    I have also incorporated some poems and songs that have been significant in war sailor history. This includes an excerpt from Herman Wildenvey's poem written for the opening of the Memorial Hall in Stavern for the fallen sailors of World War I. Furthermore, I have included the hymn "Who knows how near my end is to me?" recommended for burials at sea by the Altar Book from 1945. Then I have included an adaptation of Nordahl Grieg's poem "It was home we Norwegian sailors were destined to," and finally the shanty "Rolling Home," which has German origins, probably from the 1870s.

    Next, I have put it all together in the context of the traditional Catholic requiem. Music history has a rich requiem tradition. During the work, I realized that there is also a significant war requiem tradition that extends far beyond Benjamin Britten's iconic work. Excerpts from the requiem text are sung in both Latin and Norwegian. I hope that this will tie the work closely to the requiem tradition while also highlighting the striking similarities with the sailors' accounts. At times, they almost seamlessly blend into each other.

    The development mostly follows that of the requiem, meaning that I let the sailors' stories reflect and actualize the requiem. This is not one continuous story from 1939 onwards, nor is it a single sailor's story.

    The premiere was due to November 8th 2020 at the Norwegian Opera’s main stage. It was, however cancelled during the general rehearsal due to a covid outbreak. Finaly, the work was premiered in Oslo Concert Hall May 31th 2022 with great success.

  • Norwegian original libretto

    I. INTROITUS: REST IN PEACE

    Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine et lux perpetua luceat eis.

    Light,
    the whole convoy lay bathed in light.
    Heavens and sea were transformed to fire.
    They fight their final battle
    and enter the final rest.
    Shall also we die like they die?

    Rest in peace each soldier of peace
    in your sunken grave.
    Silent you sank, the memory climbs
    like sun from the sea.
    As day ascends, so too
    all the sea did take.

    Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine et lux perpetua luceat eis.

    II. KYRIE: HAND OF DEATH

    It’s coming, the torpedo.

    Kyrie eleison.

    I feel the hold on my throat,
    weariness in my knees.

    Lord, show mercy unto us.

    The boat throws violently.
    The sea is vast.
    In the lifeboat,
    we row so the sweat gushes,
    but the hands perish from the frost.
    The snow lashes the face.

    Christe eleison.
    The face in the lifeboat.
    Kyrie eleison.

    Hand of Death,
    mountain of waves
    coming toward us,
    reaching after us
    the foamy crest gushing in front.

    The face in the lifeboat

    Tears are my bread day and night,
    while they incessantly ask meg:
    Where is your God?


    III. GRADUALE: SHANTY

    As day ascends, so too
    all the sea did take.

    Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

    Light,
    the whole convoy lay bathed in light.
    Heavens and sea were transformed to fire.
    Onboard on the burning ship
    they fight their final battle.
    Shall also we die like they die?


    IV. DIES IRAE: WE CARRY ON

    Dear Selma,
    what do you feel?
    Perhaps the same as me?
    You feel it in your heart,
    I feel it in my stomach,
    as I have no heart at all.

    I'm very dissapointed about myself,
    never made up to be a hero.
    Not a coward, I hope.
    We carry on sailing.

    Then, suddenly there was a heavy crash.
    We carry on sailing.

    Yes, suddenly there was a heavy crash.
    We carry on sailing.
    Another follows, yet another blast.
    We carry on sailing.

    But everything is quiet,
    there is nothing to see.
    We carry on sailing.

    1. Day of wrath and doom impending,
    Heaven and Earth in ashes ending,
    David’s word with Sibyl’s blending.

    2. Oh, what fear man’s bosom rendeth,
    when from heaven the judge descendeth,
    On whose sentence all dependeth.

    It is a strain to go for days and nights,
    We carry on sailing.
    expecting to be blown up by a terrible blast. We carry on sailing.

    Who knows if or when or where?
    We carry on.
    Will she float or will we go straight down?

    The sea stands in flames around the boat,
    the heat is gruesome.

    Dies irae, dies illa,
    solvet saeclum in favilla:
    teste David cum Sibylla.

    We carry on.

    We rowed
    with a wave of burning fuel after us.

    The sea of flames engulfed the others.
    The heat, the warmth!
    Some remained on deck
    and they knew.


    We carry on sailing.
    I confess I'm afraid to die.
    We carry on.
    I admire the others,
    admire them.
    So there it is again,
    a door slammed, something fell on deck. Will you be killed or wounded?
    Will you freeze to death?
    Get into a lifeboat or cling to a raft?
    Will it last long?
    We carry on.



    V. TUBA MIRUM I: ...AND CARRY ON...

    Dies irae, dies illa,
    solvet saeclum in favilla:

    teste David cum Sibylla.

    Tuba mirum spargens sonum
    per sepulchra regionum,
    coget omnes ante thronum.

    We carry on.

    VI. KJÆRE LUCY

    Dearest Lucy!
    Or was it Margaret?
    No, Nadya it was.
    She with the glittering black hair
    and those small pert breasts
    under her black dress.
    Yes, it was her.

    Yes, she knows what happened.
    Something went wrong, Nadya!

    I lay in the sea again.
    Wanted to scream,
    but all that came out was a sob.

    There you were,
    crouching and stroked my back.
    I tried to laugh,
    but I couldn’t.


    You said you were my mother,
    madre mia,
    and we laughed about your pert breasts.
    I think I was very drunk, Nadya!


    In the morning you took me with you to church,
    to church to light a candle,
    for me!
    So that the holy virgin should bring me safely
    over the sea.

    Dearest Nadya…
    Or was it Miriam?

    Dearest Lucy,
    I have no heart at all!


    VI. TUBA MIRUM II: WHO KNOWS HOW NEAR MY END MAY BE?


    Forgive me,
    Dearest Amy, forgive me.
    I do not know
    how we can go on.
    I am surely finished
    and so are the others.
    Forgive me,
    dearest Amy, forgive me.
    I have done no wrong.


    It came, Amy.
    The blast,
    and I thought that it was us
    that they had hit,
    but it was “Biarritz”.

    Oh God, oh God,
    it sank in half a minute.

    Forgive us,
    we have done no wrong.


    Tuba mirum spargens sonum
    per sepulchra regionum,
    coget omnes ante thronum.

    Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth
    Through earth’s sepulchres it ringeth
    All before the throne it bringeth.

    My heart beats violently.
    I thought I was ready to die,
    but to be burned alive would seem too cruel.

    And then the depth charge blew.
    The tremor should wake the dead.


    Death is struck, and nature quaking:
    All creation is awaking,
    To its Judge an answer making.

    Oh, look, a giant bomber lurks on the starboard!
    Then it disappears.
    Now it’s coming again
    flying very low.

    A life means nothing.
    But I have an unending thirst to live.

    Dearest Amy,
    forgive me.
    I am surely finished.

    Oh, how they cried.
    We have done no wrong.
    I can still hear the cries.
    How can we go on?

    Who knows how near my end may be?
    Time speeds away and death comes on;
    How swiftly, ah! How suddenly,
    may death be here and life be gone!
    My God, for Jesus’ sake I pray
    Thy Peace may bless my dying day.

    A life means nothing.
    But I have an unending thirst to live.
    So absurd, so bitter
    to leave
    those at home forever, and friends out there,
    to be with them no more.


    I worked so hard to live.
    Arms and legs in constant motion
    for eleven days,
    while luminous luxury steamers
    sailed in to every torn fantasy.


    The world that smiled when morn was come
    May change for me ere close of eve;
    So long as earth is still my home
    In peril of my death I live.
    My God, for Jesus’ sake I pray
    Thy peace may bless my dying day.


    VIII OFFERTORIUM: WHEN WE BRING FREEDOM HOME

    Home, we were to come home
    with freedom, home.

    It was home we were to come
    every time we headed out.
    We came in from the sea
    with presents for our loved ones
    Now we shall bring
    freedom home.

    We offer sacrifices.
    Receive them for those souls
    whom today we remember.

    Hostias et preces, tibi, Domine,
    laudis offerimus.

    It was home we were to come,
    home with freedom.

    Sacrifices, we offer sacrifices.

    Sacrifices and prayers?
    Strange.
    None of my comrades
    gave their life for the fatherland!
    It was the bloody war
    that took it.


    They carried a burning desire
    to save the only life they had.


    Hostias et preces, tibi, Domine,
    laudis offerimus.

    Not even the slightest thing have they understood
    of the fear of dying when you are only eighteen years.

    Rex gloriae, rex potus.

    King Alcohol,
    glorious king.

    Save all the souls
    from the deep
    and from the lion’s mouth.

    Just because it’s war,
    makes it no easier to die,
    and you die only once.

    IX. LIBERA ME: HAVE YOU SLEPT WELL?
    Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine.

    Light,
    bright spheres of light hang in the air
    and light up the sea
    with beautiful light red colors.
    The night was glorious.

    Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine
    et lux perpetua luceat eis.

    Loud shooting,
    infernal noise.
    Even so, the night
    was glorious.

    Let the eternal light shine for them.

    Light,
    a blueish light fills the room.
    No one is to be found.
    It is quiet.

    Libera me.

    Have you slept well, my boy?

    In sleep come the tormenting dreams.
    A blueish light, intense light fills the room.
    No one is to be found.
    Sunken in the floor, cases of glass,
    hundreds of them.

    Have you slept well, my boy?

    Cases that are filled with liquid,
    in them lie human bodies.
    Fragmented bodies.
    Rows of teeth grimace at me
    from empty skulls.
    Above me the dark.

    Light,
    the dazzling light comes from the cases.
    Ceiling and the walls are dark, as if they do not exist.
    Only the dazzling light from the glass cases and bodies.
    I must wander on the edge and look down.

    Have you slept well?

    Requiem aeternam,
    et lux perpetua luceat eis.

    Rolling home, rolling home,
    rolling home across the sea.
    Rolling home to dear old Norway.
    Rolling home, dear land to thee.

    Do you sleep well, my boy?

    Who can understand?
    No one wants to understand.
    I must manage alone.

    Rolling home, rolling home,
    rolling home across the sea.
    Rolling home to dear old Norway.
    Rolling home, rolling home!

    Translated by Peter Edwards