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Programme Note

Material for program notes:

Cob Weaver and other Secrets on the Way (2002)

Since the turn of the century, Nørgård has composed about ten shorter piano pieces
– often “congratulation pieces” to friends, acquaintances and colleagues. In this case,
two pieces of this kind are connected, joined by an improvised passage with threads from
each.

Nørgård writes:
“These two short piano pieces can be considered as independent “album leaves” – presented here in association with each other. Cob Weaver was composed in 1998 for – and as a request by – my Swiss composer colleague Urs Schneider, on the occasion of his 50th birthday. The original titles was "Make your choice, mr. Schneider".

The new title was added later – coming from the movement’s cobweb-like lines and in connection with my wish, in 2002, to unite these two pieces via a (half improvised) transition: a whirling cadence that introduces the melodies of the music to come, its… “secrets on the way.” The title of this work is borrowed from a Tomas Tranströmer poem from 1958 (and those secrets – on the way – can at the same time characterize the former “cob weaver”, the composer’s pet name for
the common spider). This is the poem:

Secrets on the Way
Daylight struck the face of a man who slept.
His dream was more vivid
but he did not wake.
Darkness struck the face of a man who
walked
among the others in the sun’s strong
impatient rays.
It was suddenly dark, like a downpour.
I stood in a room that contained every
moment –
a butterfly museum.
And the sun still as strong as before.
Its impatient brushes were painting
the world.

The piano piece, Secrets on the Way, was
a birthday greeting for the great Swedish
poet’s 70th year in 2001.”

Per Nørgård, 2009