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he succeeds in making the mute silken drum sound, which
only happens after his death.
Silkitromman is cast in a chamber format with only a few
singers, electro-acoustic equipment and a chamber orchestra.
The desire for simplicity and clarity on a musical plane has
led to large sections - for example the old window cleaner’s
letter at the beginning and the gripping dialogue between the
old man and the girl at the end - being sung more or less
without instrumental accompaniment. In the final scene, one
long tone draws the boundary between the kingdom of the
living and of the dead. The music of the scheming villains is,
on the other hand, much more complex, both in sound texture
and construction.
In the autumn of 1982, Atli Heimir Sveinsson composed a
choral suite, Haustmyndir, for mixed choir, three strings and
accordion to texts about life’s last days by Snorri Hjartarson.
Written for the Hamrahh'5 choir, Haustmyndir seems to
pursue further the exaggerated simplicity that i§ characteristic
of parts of Silkitromman. The suite which consists of four
movements meditates for twenty minutes on a single chord,
with rare appearances of new words on melodic tones. The
effect is that the musical flow makes maximal use of time,
almost to the point where time ceases to exist.
Silkitromman can be said to summarize and be the
culmination of a long period, characterized by romantic-
expressionistic power of expression. The composer himself
calls Silkitromman “pure and simple Wagner”. However, in
some works composed between 1982 and 1984, one can
perceive a stylistic change towards a less emotional and more
“concrete” view of music. It is possible that these point for-
ward to the large-scale ballet (or “action drammatica”) Time
and Water, which is as yet unperformed. To all appearances,
this will be the most detailed attempt by any Icelandic
composer to approach the important and diverse collection of
poems by Steinn Steinarr. The ballet is composed for 24-part
chorus, soloists, an orchestra without violins but with guitars,
electric guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer and the electro-
acoustic media. The change of style is evident both in the
music that alludes to dance and movement and in the more
homophonic and strongly dissonant structure. There are two
dance movements in the little symphony entitled Inf ini-
(1) Front Board
(2) Front Board
(3) Front Flyleaf
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(191) Back Cover
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(193) Rear Flyleaf
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(195) Rear Board
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(197) Spine
(198) Fore Edge
(199) Scale
(200) Color Palette
(2) Front Board
(3) Front Flyleaf
(4) Front Flyleaf
(5) Front Cover
(6) Front Cover
(7) Page [1]
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(191) Back Cover
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(193) Rear Flyleaf
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(195) Rear Board
(196) Rear Board
(197) Spine
(198) Fore Edge
(199) Scale
(200) Color Palette