Ralph Lundsten - Legend of Joy & Nordic Nature Symphony No3

Posted By : Serial | Date : 18 Dec 2005 13:50:07 | Comments : 2 |

Legend of Joy & A Midwinter Saga - 320Kb CBR 109Mb

1 Legend of Joy 6:02
2 Anticipating Winter 4:26
3 Advent 2:54
4 Christmastide 4:21
5 Midwinter Night 3:13
6 Song of the Stars 3:40
7 New Years Vigil 7:52
8 Winter Symphony 14:42

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Thoughts at Christmastide by Ralph Lundsten:

Christmas, with its magical power to change mankind, is still something of a myste-ry! It has grown greater than its origins, whether they were religious or heathen - a festival of light during the darkness of the winter, when life out there is frozen solid!

Christmas - a time of wonder, when otherwise rigid, dull citizens bring the forest into their living-rooms and adorn it frenetically and indiscriminately with the most colorful decorations of all kinds and materials. Food is consumed with a breathtak-ing sense of disproportion, gift-wrapped uselessness is given away, and wet tokens of affection are distributed to loved ones and not-so-loved-ones!

The main part in this topsy-turvey world is played by Christmas' great star: Tomten himself! In Sweden this remarkable figure has developed through folk tradition into a generous and much-cherished personality - beloved and welcomed by both children and adults.

The idea of composing a large work dealing with winter and its holidays was one of my very first inspirations. I began in 1955 and reached the point at which the melodic material was almost complete and the movement “Winter Symphony” was sketched for large orchestra.

Now, a quarter of a century later, I find myself on an emotional journey through time, continuing the composition and concluding it! Wandering through my paradise of memory I relive my childish and youthful raptures of anticipating the first snow, ice-fern on the windowpane, the flickering northern lights in a tarry winter sky and the whirling dance of the snowflakes in an infinite world of winter. Thanks to the rich electronic opportunities our time offers for creating imaginative music, free in time and space, I believe I have found the best way to preserve my old dream of A Midwinter Saga.

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