Event info

Ensemble Adapter premieres The Clavis Metrica by Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson at Nordic Music Days. 

Adapter is a German-Icelandic ensemble for contemporary music based in Berlin. The core of the group consists of a quartet with flute, clarinet, harp and percussion. Together with steady guest instrumentalists this core grows into chamber music settings with up to 10 players.The group regularly performs at Europe's best-known contemporary music festivals and has premiered numerous compositions and released recordings internationally. The ensemble also produces and co-produces larger interdisciplinary projects. In workshops Adapter transfers knowledge of how to write, study and perform contemporary music to composers, instrumentalist and creatives worldwide. Adapter stays in touch with the latest developments in the differing scenes of contemporary creation - maintaining a progressive, authentic and powerful style.

Performers:
Ensemble Adapter (IS/DE):
Kristjana Helgadóttir, flute
Ingólfur Vilhjálmsson, clarinet
Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir, harp
Matthias Engler, percussion

About Háttatal:

As the scaldic meter would merge with rhyme, an age of olympic virtuosity in poetry started in Iceland. Meters that can go backwards and forwards, where a whole couplet rhymes with the next one entirely - all this and much more, keeping a strict number of syllables and meanwhile adhering to strict rules of alliterations.

Every variant of every meter has a name and a style. Music, poetry and storytelling were one and the same. Various significant poets would write a Háttatal or a Háttalykill or in latin: Clavis Metrica. A clavis metrica would usually consist of a catalog of meters with poems written by the author. They teach and explain each meter but also display the poet's virtuosity.

Despite the elaborate and somewhat strict rules of these types of poetic meters the musical rhythm can be very fleeting and elastic in performance. The clear patterns of color and emphasis generated by the rules of the meter make for a flexible canvas for live performance as the meter can withstand a lot of variation as regards to rhythm and melody and still be recognizable by the trained poetic ear.

In the Clavis Metrica (2022) of Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson (IS), the author follows in the footsteps of the poets of old. A string of poems with all the embellishments and variations is written for instruments only without any text. Various sounds made by instruments signify different vowels and consonants, emphasis and articulation. Out comes a long rosary of many beads with each being only slightly different than the previous one.

The composition of the piece was generously supported by the Artist Salary Fund of Iceland Ministry of Culture and Education. The piece is dedicated to Ensemble Adapter, Svend Nielsen and Atli Ingólfsson.