Wood Works
Sunday 26 May 2019
Lightspace, Fortitude Valley
In our first collaboration with Brisbane string duo Duoz (Jason and Kirsten Tong), Fusion presented Nordic and Baltic music for voices and strings, including Peteris Vasks's Plainscapes and the world premiere of the choral transcription of the Danish String Quartet's Wood Works album.
The Danish String Quartet is primarily a classical string quartet, but its members also share a passion for Nordic folk music and exploring their traditional musical roots. In 2014 they released Wood Works, a CD of their own unique arrangements of folk melodies and fiddle tunes from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. It proved immensely popular and they have performed the music all over the world to critical acclaim. From lively dance pieces to a set of three traditional wedding songs, and from wistful waltzes to pensive polskas, Wood Works takes listeners on a musical journey across Scandinavia.
In a world-first performance, Fusion and Duoz presented a new iteration of these evocative arrangements, transcribed and rearranged for voices, violin and cello.
Performers
David Allen, Madonna Forster, Brett Gordon, Bronwyn Mitchell, Rebecca Thomas, Nicki Jenkins, Alisen McLeod, Debra Shearer-Dirié, Tim Smetham, David Webster
Jason Tong, violin
Kirsten Tong, cello
View programme
Lightspace, Fortitude Valley
In our first collaboration with Brisbane string duo Duoz (Jason and Kirsten Tong), Fusion presented Nordic and Baltic music for voices and strings, including Peteris Vasks's Plainscapes and the world premiere of the choral transcription of the Danish String Quartet's Wood Works album.
The Danish String Quartet is primarily a classical string quartet, but its members also share a passion for Nordic folk music and exploring their traditional musical roots. In 2014 they released Wood Works, a CD of their own unique arrangements of folk melodies and fiddle tunes from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. It proved immensely popular and they have performed the music all over the world to critical acclaim. From lively dance pieces to a set of three traditional wedding songs, and from wistful waltzes to pensive polskas, Wood Works takes listeners on a musical journey across Scandinavia.
In a world-first performance, Fusion and Duoz presented a new iteration of these evocative arrangements, transcribed and rearranged for voices, violin and cello.
Performers
David Allen, Madonna Forster, Brett Gordon, Bronwyn Mitchell, Rebecca Thomas, Nicki Jenkins, Alisen McLeod, Debra Shearer-Dirié, Tim Smetham, David Webster
Jason Tong, violin
Kirsten Tong, cello
View programme
Folk music is the music of all the small places. It is the local music, but as such it is also the music of everywhere and everyone. Like rivers, the melodies and dances have flowed slowly from region to region: Whenever a fiddler stumbled on a melody, he would play it and make it his own before passing it on. You don’t own a folk tune, you simply borrow it for a while.
