Stjórn (2016)
I - mantra / mantra
II - millispil / interlude
III - þitt eigið ævintýri / your own adventure
IV - hali / coda
Stjórn was written for soprano Elísabet Einarsdóttir and Elektra Ensemble, and was premiered on Errata Collective's concert on Dark Music Days in January of 2016. The piece calls for solo soprano, flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello.
The piece, which is in four interwoven movements, is a research on the concept 'control'. Each movement tackles the concept from a different perspective. Most of the piece is composed of small fragments of musical material that the group navigates through based on a loose system, in a previously undetermined way. The piece is therefore never exactly the same. In two movements that make up the biggest part of the piece (mov. I and III) the soprano controls which way to navigate through the piece, while the ensemble has to pay attention to where she's going in order to follow her. The lyrics of the piece mostly refer to things happening in the actual piece, making the piece a kind of a self-contained ritual.
The idea for this open structure came from the book series "Choose Your own Adventure", which I read when I was a kid, but in these books the reader could control the actions of the protagonist by choosing between different pages to continue reading on.