It was a thrill to have the mystical lyrics of H.P. Lovecraft set to music in my latest choral piece, “Rhyme of Polaris”. I have always been a fan of science fiction, and Lovecraft is a long-time favorite – perhaps in my book best known through the film adaptations of Re-Animator, but also through the Cthulhu myth. I found these lyrics as featured in Lovecraft’s 1918 short story, “Polaris”, and was inspired to write this piece. The text (below) sparkled, in particular, exploration of harmony to evoke my interpretation of the unusual text. Haga Motettkör, conducted by Ulrike Heider, premiered the piece in concert on June 6, 2015.

Slumber, watcher, till the spheres,
Six and twenty thousand years
Have revolv’d, and I return
To the spot where now I burn.
Other stars anon shall rise
To the axis of the skies;
Stars that soothe and stars that bless
With a sweet forgetfulness
Only when my round is o’er
Shall the past disturb thy door.

I have set another ‘classic’ sacred text to music, and it’s one that is very close to my heart: the Ubi caritas et amor. Of course, it has been set to music many times and one of my favorites in that respect (the one by Maurice Duruflé) was sang as me and my wife entered the church during our wedding… so the text is very special, and in terms of my own faith, very true. The Haga Motettkör did a beautiful job performing this piece in service twice during the year, and this recording is from the second performance in October where it was featured as a reflective piece right after the sermon. The piece is a warm hymn with a more dynamic and harmonically challenging mid-section. Listen for yourself!

[audio:http://moviescoremedia.com/mikaelcarlsson_choralmusic/ubicaritasetamor.mp3|titles=Ubi Caritas et Amor (Haga Motettkör/Ulrike Heider]

I am currently composing a setting of the seven Magnificat antiphons – a text which has been beautifully set to music before by composers such as Pawel Lukaszewski and Arvo Pärt. My suite is for a cappella choir and I believe the approach is unusually ‘technical’ for me: I have the idea to center each and one of the seven small pieces around a specific interval (as there are seven intervals on a major scale), so the first ‘O Sapientia’ will explore the major second and the last ‘O Emmanuel’ the perfect octave. The Antiphonae Intervallum will be premiered by the Haga Motettkör conducted by Ulrike Heider in service at the Haga Church, Göteborg, on December 14.

As a gift to the organizers behind the International Film Music Festival in Córdoba, Spain, – BSO Spirit – I wrote this little orchestral fanfare to celebrate their 10th anniversary. I am involved in the festival producing three symphonic concerts there on an annual basis. Incorporating themes from RoboCop by Basil Poledouris was my way to emphasize the “roots” of the special festival spirit, to which Poledouris contributed a considerable amount of heart and bravery when participating in one of the festival’s first editions in the midst of battling cancer. The fanfare was performed as the concert opener for our gala concert “Best of Film Music 2013-2014/A Tribute to Jerry Goldsmith” (which I also produced). This is the Orquesta de Córdoba conducted by Juan Manuel Parra. Had a lot of fun doing it and would certainly love to write more music for orchestra…

[audio:http://mikaelcarlsson.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/fanfareforcordoba.mp3|titles=Fanfare for Córdoba (Orquesta de Córdoba/Juan Manuel Parra, conductor)]

My fourth piece to be published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing in Florida, USA, is now available: Song of Faith, which is based on a text from Micah 7:7-8. The piece was commissioned by the Haga Church, Göteborg, to be performed in service and the text was in fact the same as one of the readings for this particular Sunday (the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, also known as Candlemass or, in Swedish, Kyndelsmässodagen). It’s a a really beautiful text which lended itself very well to a musical setting emphasizing the strong message of faith. The recording below is from the premiere performance by the Haga Motettkör conducted by Ulrike Heider during the above mentioned service.

[audio:http://moviescoremedia.com/mikaelcarlsson_choralmusic/songoffaith.mp3|titles=Song of Faith (Haga Motettkör/Ulrike Heider)]

The Haga Motettkör premiered my composition “What Is God?” during the 8th World Choir Games in Riga, Latvia, in July. The piece, which is combining shimmering harmonies with swiftly moving passages of ambivalent ostinati and quasi-bitonal statements, was commissioned to be premiered in the Contemporary Music section and was the piece that received the highest jury points among the pieces that were performed by the choir. I have to admit being humbled by the fact that the jury consisted of several of my heroes… Vytautas Miskinis and Javier Busto, to name two of them. The piece sets a text by Eckhart Tolle to music and is, in terms of the actual performance, one of the more demanding choral compositions I have written so far.

My setting of Ave Maria – possibly the most popular sacred text ever judging from the number of existing compositions based on these beautiful lyrics – was premiered by the Haga Motettkör conducted by Ulrike Heider in service at the Haga Church, Göteborg, in March. This one actually replaces an earlier Ave Maria I had composed in 2007 but was never really happy with. The new one came to me much more naturally and has a theme and flow that is uncomplicated and, hopefully, unpretentious. I can’t think of anything more wrong than doing being too pretentious with this text. It should just be natural, like the piece always existed and just had to be written down.

[audio:http://moviescoremedia.com/mikaelcarlsson_choralmusic/avemaria.mp3|titles=Ave Maria (Haga Motettkör/Ulrike Heider)]