Title & composer

Tecken - Spår - Löfte

Lars Sandberg

Composition year: 1991

Duration: 7 min

Comments about the work: A diatonic material which I have fantasized about. In this particular case - and itshould not be taken too literally - it's a kind of La Folia progression in A minor. Ihave tried to find wealth in limitation, to conquer or perhaps reconquer amaterial that I can move about in completely freely. The melody moves towardsits own limit and ends in a kind of openness. The title is connected to the fact that I have given a great deal thought to what acomposer actually does. The composer writes signs, and these signs are thevisible trace of something that he has heard. The sign is a sign "of" and not asign "for", which is how some people see it; it is understood instrumentally. Here something exists before the sign itself. The composer imagines themusic, hears it with his inner ear and tries to put it down on paper. What is written on the paper is of course music - but at the same time it is animpression of music. When the musician plays the music he adds yet anotherdimension - the musician interprets the signs. The signs leave room forexpectation, a promise of potential music. Text: Lars Sandberg. From Phono Suecia No. 89 (1995) Translation: Cynthia Zetterqvist