THE MOSTER PAGEANT
The works on this recording consist of a revised version of Moster Suite (1986), a depiction of "the first mass on Norwegian soil", music for goat's horn and lyre, a song-dance and, finally, a presentation of some of the articles of Norwegian Christian law (1024), interspersed with a lot of lure calls. Together they make up the music of The Moster Pageant.
The Moster Pageant was commissioned for Johannes Heggland's historical drama Kristkongane på Moster (The Christian Kings at Moster), which was performed for the first time in 1984. Since then, the play has been performed every year at Moster by a cast of amateurs and professionals. Like most theatre composers, Kjell Habbestad has had to adapt and revise the music from year to year. These annual productions have given the composer ample opportunity to test and develop the musical drama, thereby achieving a well-integrated work in which there is a fine balance between the spoken word and the music.
Johannes Heggland (b. 1919) bases his story on the Snorre saga about Olaf Tryggvason, who in the year 995 set sail from Dublin via the Hebrides and the Orkneys for Moster to become king of Norway. The first act of the play is about the people of the old pagan faith and their confrontation with the new king and his demand that they submit and allow themselves to be baptized as Christians. Their conversion is a process marked by doubt and resistance, adding to the drama of the story, which reaches a peak in the first Christian mass on Norwegian soil. The defection of the new converts and the rebellion against the king and the Christian faith are portrayed later on in the work.
In the second act, Olaf Tryggvason returns to quell the peasants' rebellion, but a clairvoyant peasant prophesies the destiny that awaits him at the Battle of Svolder. The last part of the drama takes place in the year 1024, when Olaf Haraldson journeys to Moster accompanied by Bishop Grimkjell. They set the laws of Christianity, but pagan rites are still being practised in secret, creating tension in the people and between the lovers Vigdis and Torolv, who have been separated from each other by the new faith.
In composing the music, Kjell Habbestad has sought to build on the same historical ground as that used by the author of the text. Heggland was able to draw on the Norse sagas and other historical sources. It was not easy to find similar musical material from the Viking Age, but Habbestad has sought to evoke the spirit of the time by using the oldest surviving melodic material from that era. This material is woven organically into a musical idiom which reinforces the impression of the Norse tradition. Habbestad has chosen to use a standard symphony orchestra with a comparatively large percussion section. To emphasize the archaic setting, he has also made use of ancient instruments such as the goat's horn, the medieval lyre and four lures. With the exception of the overture and the postlude, the music of The Moster Pageant primarily consists of short fragments with various functions. Besides accompanying the singing in the drama, the music is used in a programmatic manner (e.g. to describe the burning of the pagan temple) and to symbolize moods or religious beliefs. The music underscores processions, lends colour to situations, and is used as a signal and a framework for changing scenes or in the intervals between acts. Therefore, the music sometimes only lasts for 20 seconds, whereas at other times it continues for up to three or four minutes. Because of its different roles, the music alternates between the foreground and the background as the drama unfolds. Even though there are many brief musical fragments, Habbestad has sought to create an inner cohesion between the various parts, giving the listener an impression of a musical totality.
Thus, it is a relatively short way from theatre music to a concert suite. In Moster Suite, which also employs soloists and a choir, the musical material is expanded into five separate movements which are arranged according to the five original melodies on which the music is based. Despite the fact that it is not possible to determine their age, the basic form of these melody fragments, which were first transcribed in the 18th century, is extremely old. Three of the melodies are taken from Jean Baptiste de La Borde's Essai sur la Musique ancienne et moderne, published in 1780.
THE FIRST MOVEMENT
is based on the lay Ár var Allda (Of old was the time) from the saga of the creation in Völuspa, which dates back to the 9th century. La Borde obtained this melody from Johann Ernst Hartmann, who had transcribed it from Icelander Jon Ólafson. In the play Habbestad uses the melody as a leitmotif every time Torolv or Gunnbjør defends the old faith, in connection with pagan rites of worship, sacrificial rituals, and when Vigdis is torn between faith and doubt.
The theme is introduced for the first time in two goat's horns playing antiphonally, and then picked up by the baritone (the skald) who sings the Norse saga of creation stanza by stanza. The movement is expressive and dramatic and the Völuspa melody is presented in many different harmonic and rhythmic settings. It ends with a monumental chorale-like version where the lay competes with the thundering sound of waves (percussion) and the cries of gulls (strings).
THE SECOND MOVEMENT
In this movement the Gregorian antiphon Accipite iocunditatem gloriae vestrae is used as a musical symbol for the alien culture introduced by Olaf Tryggvason with its Latin and its unfamiliar rites. Habbestad has quoted the antiphon from the handwritten neumes deciphered by Georg Reiss in 1904-1907 on the basis of fragments of Norwegian liturgical books in the National Archives. These fragments had been used to wrap magistrates' account books and had thus been preserved for posterity. According to Reiss, the melodies with their Irish-Anglo-Saxon neumes dated back to the 10th century, and he supposed that this was music Olaf Tryggvason and his priests brought with them from England. The melody is an antiphon for an introit sung on Whit-Tuesday.
The movement opens with a fugal exposition employing this Gregorian material, representing the entry of the priests as bearers of Christianity. The use of fifths and the rhythmic treatment of the antiphon are reminiscent of music techniques used in religious contexts in the early Middle Ages. A characteristic feature is the forceful, confident manner in which the music makes its way. The priests' Alleluiahs are accompanied not only by the sacred sound of bells, but also by percussion, which underscores the militant aspect of the advent of Christianity.
THE THIRD MOVEMENT
of the suite is based on the melody Fyrri menn at frædin Kunno from the lay Lilja, taken from La Borde's collection. Habbestad has combined stanzas from the lay Holmgangs-Berse from around 980 and Fjolsvinnsmål. The result is Long I sat on Vetahaugen, an expressive orchestral song which in the suite serves as an intermezzo portraying romantic yearning and the beauty of the western Norwegian landscape.
THE FOURTH MOVEMENT
In the play, the song-dance Ormurin Langi (Olaf Tryggvason's warship Serpent Long) is used to portray the destiny prophesied to Olaf Tryggvason. This type of dance is an example of an ancient Norwegian song-dance tradition which is still alive on the Faroe Islands. Habbestad has chosen a Faroese version from among many variants of the melody. He himself has adapted and translated 13 of the 85 stanzas, which describe the building of Serpent Long, the hiring of the crew (which included Einar Tambarskjelve), preparations and the sea voyage to the Battle of Svolder, which ended with the king throwing himself into the sea, followed by his men.
The movement opens with triumphant fanfares signalling the entry of the King. This is followed by an orchestral meditation on the prophecy of the king's fall in the Battle of Svolder. A counterpoint to the song-dance is played by the double basses and the cellos, and the sombre mood is further accentuated by the ominous rhythms in the percussion section. The blind, clairvoyant peasant is introduced by the woodwinds, followed by the song-dance itself as an antiphon sung by the lead chorister and the choir. The music reflects and heightens the shifting moods of the story. The singing ceases and the movement ends, dying away as the king and his men meet their destiny, framed as in the first movement by the roar of the sea and the cries of gulls (strings/piccolo).
THE FIFTH MOVEMENT
In this movement, the melody of the lay Hiuggo ver met Hiorvi (Hard we smote with our swords) is used to depict the grip the pagan beliefs had on the people even after the laws of Christianity were introduced at Moster. The melody, which has the same archaic features as those seen in Of old was the time, is also taken from La Borde's collection of Nordic folk melodies. The text, which is a lay taken from Krákumál, is actually about the hero Ragnar Lodbrok, but some of the stanzas are well-suited for portraying how Torolv was struck down with a sword by the king's men.
This movement represents the clash between the old and the new faith. The orchestra's introduction depicts Torolv knocking down the cross and immediately thereafter being struck down in the name of the king. The skald sings the lay first in its entirety. Then the song of the priests (Accipite) from the second movement joins in, and the two themes become intertwined with each other, struggling for dominance, while the body of Torolv is borne away from the site.
In order to highlight the conflict between pagan beliefs and the new Christian faith, Habbestad juxtaposes the lay with some of the stanzas from the antiphon Accipite iocunditatem. While the lay describes the reward waiting in Valhalla and Balder's banquet, the stanzas of the antiphon tell of those who have escaped from the darkness of the world and who have been clad by the Lord in dazzling garments and escorted into the great feast.
The medieval sequence Prædicasti, Dei Care, taken from the 13th century Missale Nidrosiense, is also used in connection with Olaf Haraldson's entry in the last part of The Moster Pageant. Habbestad has also employed some of the items of the mass Graduale Romanum: Kyrie, Gloria and Ite missa est. The music for the lures and the medieval lyre is also based on all of the above-mentioned material.
Habbestad is not the first composer to seek to depict paganism and the Middle Ages. Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring has been regarded as the prototype for the way archaic musical elements can be used to evoke a sense of the past and the primitive ever since it was premiered in 1913. In the 1930s Geirr Tveitt made a similar attempt to create a distinctly Norse atmosphere in several of his dramatic works, for example in the ballet Balder's Dreams. These works are characterized by a strong emphasis on the rhythmic element. Habbestad has been influenced by the medieval use of fourths, dissonant polyphony and ostinato rhythms, such as found in the work of Guillaume de Machaut. The limited melodic potential of the lure and the goat's horn enhances the feeling of primitiveness, while their timbre evokes a feeling of bygone times.
Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck is an example of how folk-like, tonal melodies can be incorporated into a consistently atonal, harmonically complex idiom. It is not difficult to hear the influence of such musical experiences from the past and present in Habbestad's music for The Moster Pageant. The result is a highly personal musical style which is in close keeping with the text and infuses the work with dramatic tension and the desired sense of the past and the primitive.
Harald Herresthal
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Kjell Habbestad was born in 1955 in Bremnes in the municipality of Bømlo on the west coast of Norway. He received degrees in church music and composition from the Norwegian State Academy of Music. After completing his graduate degree and qualifying as a teacher, he worked as an organist until 1987. Habbestad taught music theory at the Bergen Conservatory of Music from 1981 to 1986, when he was appointed associate professor of music theory at the Eastern Norway Conservatory of Music. In 1981 he joined the Norwegian Society of Composers, and has been vice-chairman of that organization since 1990. Habbestad has won a number of composition prizes and was awarded a cultural fellowship by the City of Oslo in 1994. He has composed over 45 works, covering most of the different genres: orchestral music, chamber music, opera, ballet, various kinds of church music, liturgical dramas, cantatas, complete music for church services, works for organ and piano, and a number of choral works.
Njål Sparbo (b. 1964) made his debut in the title role in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in 1991. He gave his first lied recital in Aulaen (the concert hall in the old university in Oslo) the same year. Since then Sparbo has made a name for himself as one of Norway's most versatile singers, appearing frequently as a soloist in oratorios and opera productions, as a lied singer and in the vocal ensemble Quattro Stagioni. He has studied under Ingrid Bjoner in Norway, and attended master classes in Germany, England and Finland. Sparbo has received a number of fellowships and awards, such as the Kirsten Flagstad award.
Kristin Kjølberg (b. 1962) studied at the Norwegian State Academy of Music, and made her concert debut in Aulaen in 1988. Schumann's Dichterliebe is among the works she has performed in concert. Kristin Kjølberg has appeared as soloist with a number of choirs such as Grex Vocalis, the Oslo Cathedral Choir and the Norwegian Soloist Choir. Her repertoire spans a wide range and she has sung a great deal of Baroque music with early music ensembles. She has also performed contemporary music, and taken part in a number of festivals. Kristin Kjølberg conducts the Oslo Cathedral Youth Choir and teaches in choir seminars all over the country. She also teaches voice at Foss Upper Secondary School in Oslo.
Terje Mikkelsen (b. 1957) received his education from the Norwegian State Academy of Music and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he studied under Professor Jorma Panula and was awarded a graduate degree in 1989. He also studied under Mariss Jansons in St. Petersburg and Oslo from 1989 to 1991. Mikkelsen worked closely with the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra from 1989 to 1995, from 1993 as artistic director and principal conductor. His work with the Kiev-based orchestra has included touring in several European countries, radio and television recordings and CD recordings. Since 1990 Mikkelsen has been principal guest conductor with the Lithuanian National Orchestra, where he in addition to taking part in regular concerts, tours with the orchestra and makes radio and television recordings. With this orchestra he has released the first three CD recordings in a series of the complete works of Edvard Grieg for SIMAX. Mikkelsen also conducts the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Moscow Radio and Television Orchestra on a regular basis. In addition he has appeared as guest conductor with a number of other prestigious orchestras.
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