Following the example of JS Bach, Sandström has written six motets to the same texts as the old master. The colorful tonal language is unmistakably Sandström's own, which sometimes requires virtuosity and always a feeling for sound and expression.
Show all Sandström's motets » Johann Sebastian Bach's double-choir motet Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied is one of choral literature's most virtuosic works. When, in the spring of 2003, my friend Sven-David Sandström suggested composing a choral piece using this Bach Motet as a model and dedicating it to the Lund Vocal Ensemble and me, I quickly received a positive response. Sandström's Singet dem Herrn is, like Bach's motet, composed in three movements for double choir and with virtuosic interludes. Bach's motets were probably performed with the support of instruments, at least by continuo (cello, double bass, organ), while Sandström's music to the same text is to be sung a cappella.
Movement I is extremely demanding with Sandström. The score sets a dizzying tempo, fully consistent with the textual content. Long 16-part melismas, syncopated rhythms, alternating high and low pitches, all symbolizing a joy without limits. Movement II, the chorale, invites bel canto singing with its simple, beautiful melody and its rich, expressive, almost romantic harmonies. Movement III is mostly 16-part and a tonal circus with the parts in a roller-coaster ride. The ending is characteristic of Sandström. A Hallelujah that is repeated in syncopated rhythm, pianissimony and without ritardando, a muted praise, perhaps an expression of man's smallness in the universe. Both statements make tremendous vocal technical demands. To be able to interpret this choral work in a full-fledged way, one must explore how text and music, tempo, structure and symbols, rhetoric and phrasing, dynamics and articulation come together and deliver the message. In Sandström's Singet dem Herrn hear I Bach speak to our own times with ecstatic joy that his music lives on in generation after generation.
Ingemar Månsson
