ULTRADOLENTE

ULTRADOLENTE is for seven brass instruments and two piccolos, an ensemble reminiscent of a marching band. During the performance, the ensemble (without a director) sits in a circle and collectively breathes their way through the ever-changing yet somehow monotonous sound clusters, breathing through the immense and unbearable sorrow in the poem on which the work is based. The piece is an investigation into the representation of sorrow, particularly male mourning and its representation in society. Sonatorrek was written by Egill Skallagrímsson, an important figure in Icelandic cultural heritage, after the untimely death of his two youngest sons. Skallagrímsson represents everything that a masculine man could ever want to be; he’s an epic warrior, smart and cunning, but through this poem, he shows a tender and emotional side of himself he’s never shown before. ULTRADOLENTE’s clusters are to be played in volumes ranging from ppp to mp, but brass instruments are strong and loud instruments whose sound often symbolises heroes in classical music - the quieter they sound, the harder it is for the musicians produce. The same goes for piccolos, the quieter you play the harder it is to keep them in tune, creating an eerie layer through the piece. ULTRADOLENTE is systematically based on the poem Sonatorrek (Loss of Sons) by Egill Skallagrímsson. Each letter in the Icelandic alphabet represents a note in Db major and a few accidentals at random. The notational system was then bound to all 25 verses of Sonatorrek, with each beat rendered as one beat and the spaces between each word as rests. This results in disparate but regular tonal clusters, embodying Egill’s sorrow. ULTRADOLENTE was performed on 20 February 2021 in Gryfjan, Ásmundarsalur, as a part of 'með leyndarmál í brosinu'.