Rued Langgaard: Collected Songs Vol. 1-3: Voice: Vocal Album

Collected Songs Vol. 3 - Songs to Danish and Norwegian texts (1916-49) by Rued Langgaard for Voice and Piano. Critical edition by Ole Ugilt Jensen and Bendt Viinholt Nielsen. Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) is one of the most important Danish composers of the 20th century. He has however only acquired this status many years after his death. Langgaard was an eminent musical talent but with his romantic and symbolist view of art he ended up as an outsider in an era when the trend-setting musical life of the time was permeated by Carl Nielsen's sober and modern attitude. Rued Langgaard's production within the lied genrecomprises 125 songs. Half of them were composed in the short span of years between 1914 and 1918 when the composer was in his early twenties. With this publication in three volumes Langgaard's important and personal contribution to the genre is presented in its entire range. Only 27 of the songs have previously been published. The songs are set to German Danish and Norwegian poems. The poems in Danish and Norwegian are included in an English translation (though not designed for performance purposes). Each volume is accompanied by an introduction source descriptions and a critical apparatus in Danish and English. The Rued Langgaard Edition (RLU) was established in 2000 the aim being to present practical performance-oriented publications of Langgaard's works on a critical scholarly basis.

Denmark Revisited - Danish choral works for mixed voices a cappella.Edited by Jakob Faurholt and Jesper Grove Jørgensen. Transl. by Edward Broadbridge and Mikael Gjesing. The present release contains a number of Danish choral works with Danish lyrics translated into English. For many years now there has been a broad international interest in performing Danish choral works not least from the 20th century but often the Danish lyrics have been a hindrance in realising this goal outside Denmark. With this in mind we have thought it important to make Danish choral music more available through the release of selected works in which the Danishtext is translated into English. With the present choice we have endeavoured to present works which fully demonstrate the wide range and originality of Danish choral music: the particular lyrical Danish tone of Svend S. Schultz and Jørgen Jersild; the original simplicity of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen; the characteristically Danish late romanticism of P.E. Lange-Müller and Rued Langgaard; and the music of composers with their own particular musical idiom such as Vagn Holmboe Bernhard Lewkovitch and Bo Holten. We have also tried to choose works with lyrics by writers that are specifically Danish in origin including Hans Christian Andersen Johannes V. Jensen and Tove Ditlevsen. Finally we have at all times been aware of the musical degree of difficulty so that the collection contains both easily approachable works as well as relatively complex ones. We hope that this release will help to spread knowledge and understanding of Danish choral music outside Denmark and thus offer the opportunity to expand the current choral repertoire that many choirs have wished.(Jesper Grove Jørgensen)  ContentsP. E. Lange-Müller: 3 Madonna SongsRued Langgaard: 3 Rosengaard SongsSvend S. Schultz: Denmark RevisitedVagn Holmboe: Songs Towards the Deep of Spring op. 85