We all know it. Cultural life has been shut down several times over the past year - not least when it comes to choir singing, church singing and community singing.
But after the shutdown in December, it wasn't long before DR's choir singers found each other online and got ideas for new musical and digital projects.
In the week after Easter, the DR Vocal Ensemble can present the fruit of an ambitious artistic collaboration that has been conceived, launched and realised during the corona lockdown despite the practical constraints of the time.
For five mornings in week 14, P2’s popular Morgenmusik will present the premiere of five small choral works written for the DR Vokalensemblet in the first months of the year by five Danish composers.
The lyrics for all five works were written by the young Danish poet Caspar Eric, who in the poem ’Hey, what's up little takvinge-ven’ humorously describes the feeling of stagnation and isolation in the corona era.
From Tuesday 6 April to Saturday 10 April, listeners will be able to experience a new musical take on the little poem every morning at 8.50am, accompanied by interviews with some of the composers behind it. In other words, for five mornings in a row, you can enjoy your morning coffee together to brand new sounds and words that originate from the special reality that many have experienced during the spring lockdown.
The five choral works will also be released in video form on DR Koncerthuset's YouTube channel and on the social media platforms of P2 and DR Vokalensemble.
DR Vocal Ensemble Artistic Director Michael Emery talks about the idea behind the new works:
- While the singers in the DR Vocal Ensemble have been prevented from physically singing together, a strong urge to cultivate music and singing in other ways has arisen. And since we have always worked closely with Danish composers, we wanted to create a bouquet of musical snapshots in collaboration with some of the creative artists close to the choir. It's not just performing musicians, singers and concert organisers who have been affected by the cultural malaise, but composers, songwriters and lyricists just as much.
Back in January, the DR Vocal Ensemble asked the young Danish poet Caspar Eric to write a poem that could be used as a starting point for the choir to commission five new works from Danish composers. And at the end of the month, the composers were able to start working on the music.
Originally, the idea was that the new works would be recorded individually by each choir member so that the choir could avoid meeting physically, but during the process, the community has gradually opened up, so the conditions for recording in March have been slightly more favourable than expected.
Even so, there have been many practical hurdles in getting the five choral works ready for the premiere on P2:
- We were extremely careful to observe all safety precautions - and then some - during the recording of the five works. For example, we divided the choir into two teams of eight singers so that they could stand in a single row with two and a half metres between each singer in the studio," explains Michael Emery, who acted as producer for the recordings.
It is far from only the five new works that have kept the singers in the DR Vocal Ensemble busy during the corona lockdown. Some of the singers have also performed in smaller groups at a series of special online concerts that have been livestreamed from Trinitatis Church throughout March.
At the same time, the choir is working on a series of videos to inspire the country's many amateur choir singers, which will be released later this spring. Here, the DR Vocal Ensemble's professional choir singers will share tips and techniques for working with the voice in a quiet time, while inviting you to sing along on the soprano, alto, tenor or bass parts in well-known choral works - while both professional and amateur choirs wait for the choir and cultural life to open up again.
The five new choral works will be performed live at the DR Vocal Ensemble's concert ’A Nordic Summer’ in Trinitatis Church on 24 and 25 June 2021.