Mårten Jansson

An Elemental Elegy

'An Elemental Elegy' was commissioned by the internationally acclaimed ensemble Voces8 for their 15th anniversary recording project 'After Silence'. The CD was released in July 2020.

Mårten Jansson says: 'The ensemble wanted a work about the beauty and fragility of nature. I instantly turned to lyric poet Charles Anthony Silvestri and he, being as excited about the commission as I was, completed the inspirational poem 'An Elemental Elegy' just three hours later:
Wildflowers spread across the hillside green;
A single ash stands sentinel.
Sparrows flit amid the lazy sway
Of tall grass in the whispering wind.

Glassy water touched by dragonflies;
Beneath, a flash of silver minnows;
Deeper still lie the woods beyond,
With many paths for wandering.

This idyll may soon be but a memory,
As plans and progress shall advance.
They burn the flowered hillside bare,
Root up the signal ash,
Drain the pond and pave the meadow
And, greedy, eye the woods beyond.

Now the wildflowers grow through cobblestones,
And sparrows nest among the chimney stacks.
Profound the harm we’ve done to Her, and yet
Nature, ever-changing, elemental, finds a way.

I found it extremely inspiring to set these verses which are about the beauty of nature, its endangerment by man and the belief that it will recover from our interferences, to music. In the first place my music aims to enhance the meaning of the words.'