Brass Band - Grade 4

SKU: BT.GOB-000149-130

Composed by Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen. Score Only. 34 pages. Gobelin Music Publications #GOB 000149-130. Published by Gobelin Music Publications (BT.GOB-000149-130).

This piece was commissioned by Nordhordland Brass Seminar in 1990 and written for a youth band.

The title referes to a story from norse mythology.
“The Binding of the Wolf” is not a programmatic piece of music, but I felt that there was a kind of coherence between the music and the dramatic story:

“...The wolf Fenrir was one of the demonic offspring of Loki, and as he grew up in Asgard among the gods, he became so huge and fierce that only Tyr was willing to feed him. It was decided that he must be bound, and Odin in his wisdom caused the cunning dwarfs to forge a chain which could not be broken.
It was made from the invisible and yet potent powers ofthe world, such as the roots of a mountain, the noise of a moving cat, the breath of a fish.
When completed, this chain seemed to be no more than a silken cord, but the wolf refused to let it be laid upon him unless one of the gods would put a hand between his jaws as a pledge that it was harmless.
Only Tyr was prepared to do this, and when the wolf found that the chain was unbreakable, the gods rejoiced, but Tyr lost his hand.
The binding of the wolf may be seen as a means of protecting the world of men, as well as that of the gods, from destruction.
The story of the god losing his hand appears to be one of the fundamental myths of nothern Europe...”.

Mixed Choir [STbarB] and Orchestra - Grade 4

SKU: HL.14043756

Composed by Sunleif Rasmussen. Music Sales America. Classical. Softcover. Composed 2015. 202 pages. Edition Wilhelm Hansen #WH32702. Published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen (HL.14043756).

ISBN 9788759836620. English.

Commissioned by John Storgards, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Nordic House in the Faroe Islands. Dedicated to the composers daughter Malan. Preface / Programme note: From the Edda verse 31 Three roots there are that three ways run Neath the ash-tree Yggdrasil, Neath the first lives Hel, neath the second the frost-giants, Neath the last are the lands of men. The idea behind the Symphony is the story of Yggdrasil, The Tree of Life, from the Old Norse mythology. The Ash-tree reaches all the way into the sky and has three roots, each growing into three different places. One root grows into the Land of Hel (Hel is the goddess of Hell), called Helheim, another into theLand of Frost-Giants, called Jotunheim, and one root grows into the Land of men, called Asgard. And the Ash-tree reaches into the sky. In the crown of the tree lives a squirrel, which moves fast around the tree and spreads gossip, both between the three roots and between three roots and the crown of the tree.The Edda is a large collection of Old Norse poems, collected in the 12th Century by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson. Sunleif Rasmussen, March 2015.