The Violin in the Chapel – a project for Malmö

Posted on June 20th, 2024 by


Towards a concert – 2nd October 2024 Sankt Petri Kyrka,  Malmö. 

Sankt Petri Kyrka, Malmö, June 2022  The Chapel is the four windows nearest

For years, I have been mesmerized by a space inside the great medieval Sankt Petri Kyrka,  Malmö. In recent months, I have begun discussing a project responding to this, with the church and with an extraordinary group of Swedish composers. When you walk into the west end of the this great medieval church, you will be struck as you will be, if you walk into the cathedral at Aarhus, as with so many post-reformation churches in Northern Europe, by the almost over whelming WHITE. This is very beautiful, and of course, reflects the spiritul objects of Luther, of Calvin, and the iconoclasts, who burnt heaps of relics, tore down altars and whitewashed the lavishly painted walls and ceiling, which, of course were the story-telling tools of a church which read, spoke and sung in Latin – the knowledge of which marked a cleric.

Here it was the decoration of the church came under attack during the  Danish Reformation  in 1529, when the radival reforming priest Claus Mortensen destroyed 59 of the 60 sixty pre-Reformation altarpieces. And the whitewashing took place in the next wave of zealotry in 1555.  Whilst this might seem pure vandalism, like the work of the Taliban or Pol Pot (and of course it was), a few days spent (as a Northerner) in the encrusted excess, of, say, Santa Mari delle Vigne (next too which I spent a week just recently) in Genova, will help to understand the demand, the energy behind the hammers and fire. Ironically, of course it was modelled on the ‘bonfires of the vanities’ – the burning of art works and treasures in the 1490s spearheader by Girolamo Savonarola.
And towards the end of the 1500s, the destruction of the Northern European Reformation, which had had its extreme English outcomes in the reigns of Henry VIII and his young son, Edward VI, was mirrored in the Mediterranean, when the Ottoman Empire took over the island of Cyprus, a treasure house of French Gothic architecture and art, and set upon removing every face, every saint, every non-animal/plant decoration from the churches and palaces of that one-time Lusignan realm.
However, for reasons which I will clarify later, at the Petri Kyrka, in Mamlo one space was spared such destruction. It you turn hard left, and left again, as you enter (North and then West), you will step into the  ‘Krämarkapellet’, you will be overwhelmed by a riot of late 15th century wall painting, a glimpse of how the whole church would have looked. It took my breath away the first time that I visited, and still does, even at a distance. Look up and this is what you see.

Looking up in the Merchants Chapel, now ‘Dobkapellet’ (the baptistry), Sct Petri Kyrka Malmo (2019)

I will come back to the detail of the chapel later, but I am so excited to report that an extraordinary group of composers are gathering to write and curate pieces inspired by this space. My plan, which is very simple is to put build a programme of miniatures inspired by the place – and also to film/record the pieces in situ. Right now, a conversation is building with the composers, about what they are imagining, and what they will respond to.  At the bottom of this blog, I will include elements of that conversation.
Composers involved! This list is growing, and I will be announcing the non-Nordic composers imminently!
Rolf Martinsson, Staffan Storm, Bent Sørensen,  Daniel Fjellström,  Daniel Hjorth
Letters, texts, and FB messages to and fro with the composers
Staffan Storm & Peter  – from 19 6 24
Staffan: I went to the chapel and took some pictures of the paintings. For now the piece could go in different ways. Either focus on one painting or making short movements contemplating for example three of them. But today I had another idea with the violinist as a spectator of the whole, so to say musically turning the head around, taking in all impressions.

Photo by Staffan Storm – The animals of the four gospellers ( the Tetragraph) the Agnus Dei and the Holy Spirit, amidst the forests of the North. Photo by Staffan Storm 18 6 24

Peter : I am so excited, that you are as inspired by Kraemerekapellet as I am – and thankyou so much for sending the fascinating set of pictures – the Tetragraphois with the Holy Spirit and the Agnus Dei, St Goran and the Dragon, Christ and the Wine Press,  and the two knights duelling with broad swords. I loved both approachest that you suggest – the first like a tableau of images, impressions, seen/heard from the inside out, the second of the viewing violinist – with  a touch of Mussorgsk-ean viewing, turning, promenade.
I love the layers of language and symbolism: are you aware that there is a direct, and proved link between the four animals of the tetragraph, and the animal-headed gods of ancient Egypt? When you think about the stylite and anchorite early Christian zealots in the sands of north Africa, this is not so surprising!

One of the great late medieval interiors of the North. Malene Sheppard Skaerved the astonishing painted Krämarkapellet (1460-1510) in Sankt Petri kyrka, which, when it was built in the 1300s was the biggest town church in Skåne (then Denmark) 2022

The conversation enriched ! 
Now Daniel Hjorth has joined the discussion. I wrote to him a little about the chapel:

 Peter: There are so many things that excite me about the space, the imagery, the acoustic of the chapel and the church, the contrast between the post-reformation whiteness of the main building, and the overwhelming forest of wall painting of the chapel. Then there is the almost drunken balance between the sacred and the profane, the links to the ‘bawdy’ of French literature and jongleur culture, the musical instruments, the mythological creatures, and of course, the tetragraphoi, which in this context seem to have strayed far from the four evangelists. Then there is the sense that, not only are we in a painted forest, but that the vaulting of the chapel is arboreal in itself. And the whole thing, from the masonry, the stone carving to the form of the whole, is so cosmopolitan, reaching out to the Domkirke of St Nidar in Trondhei, to the 14th century wonder of Salisbury Cathedral, to the almost-lost Lusignanean architecture of medieval French Cyprus, where I have been doing an in-situ project with the composer Evis Sammoutis for many years! It’s just so rich, and I would love to know what ‘grabs’ you. There are recording and filming plans in place already, and, as with all the works that I premiere,I plan to take the project and the pieces, both collectively and individually, on the road, and onto commercial disc.

Daniel’s response:

The combination of the sacred and profane is something that I enjoy. When you mentioned the four evangelists I thought about the ”fifth”  – Bach, and his sonatas/partitas. I heard about some research about those pieces that they have found some early manuscripts/drafts of the pieces that were more “improvisational” in their form, and that Bach could perhaps have written down some improvisations and then “refined” them later on. Imagine Bach improvising at a tavern or so, then “refining” it and performing it as a “concert piece” and now many years later these pieces often are performed in churches. My own idea for the music is somewhat connected to these Bach pieces, because I would like the piece to be “open” for interpretation the same way as music from that period has a kind of “open” score when it comes to info about exact tempo and dynamics. I find this very interesting. It says “Sarabande” and sometimes it says “piano” or “forte”. I have already started with some ideas. When you’ll eventually see my first version/draft of the piece I think it will be more clear what I mean.
3nd July – More from Staffan Storm
Today more ideas from Staffan:
I have thought further about the piece and have subsequently concentrated on three of the pictures I previously sent you. Below you will see more information about these three that I searched for.
The idea is not to musically directly interpret the images into music, but rather to try to musically create a viewer’s experience of them. A spectator standing in the chapel playing his violin. But of course, these perspectives go into each other. /Eroded Images of Heaven and Beyond/1.  Knight in Armor –This picture represents Saint Göran (St George) and the dragon. That motif was commissioned by Adzer Person (year of life unknown), a substitute Catholic priest in Sankt Petri church. He commissioned the motif in connection with the reformation in Malmö (year 1529) and the act can be interpreted as a backlash against the reformation. Person wanted to show a sign and a wish for the victory of Catholicism over the reformers. For a while, the Catholic priest had to conduct his activities in Krämarkapellet, even though the rest of Sankt Petri’s church was taken over by the vicar of the Lutheran evangelical church. /This is one of the younger paintings. On the right is the kneeling princess whom the knight rescues. On the left are the remains of the city, from whose walls the princess’s parents watch the fight for their daughter. Unfortunately, the painting here is badly damaged, something that also applies to the upper part of the Göran figure. /2. Angel’s Music – The oldest paintings also include the splendor of color in the two vaults. The drawing next to it indicates the main motifs. Let’s describe one of the main motives. Farthest to the east is “Christ as Judge”. Christ is sitting here on his throne in heaven. Several people surround him. The throne is made up of the rainbow. From the mouth of Christ proceed words that have come to form the basis of both law and gospel within Western culture. The law is illustrated with a sword and the gospel with a lily. This representation of Jesus is very common in church paintings from the 15th century. The paintings are always in the eastern vaults, normally at the front of the nave of the church. Therefore, It is natural to find the motif here in the Krämarkapellet on the eastern vault. Christ is wooed on both sides by musical angels. To his left, on the north side, is also the Virgin Mary. The north side of a church was the women’s side and here was always the special patron saint of women, the Blessed Virgin. /3. Faded Madonna
On the west gable wall, just to the right of the window opening, we find a representation of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus. The painting is very badly damaged, but parts of Mary’s clothing are still visible, as is the bare right arm of the baby Jesus. The image of the saint, with its uniform, red background, has been the most dominant of the representations of saints. The other pictures are all surrounded by leaves and rank motifs.(E mail to PSS 3 7 24)
And my response, which is less thoughtful, but excited:
This is a wonderful triptych and title – I am thinking of a strange thread from Roman de la Rose to the old and new paintings in the Chapel…./I would love to see any sketches that you might have – and I will make at the desk recordings of anything that you have. Perhaps I might find a way to come over to Sweden to work with everyone a month before the event. (E mal to Staffan Storm 4 37 24)

The church as it appeared in the middle of the 1700s drawn by Alexander Kastman

8th July 2024 – The Project begins to Florish 
It has been a few days since I reported on progress, but in the meantime, the ideas and conversations, with and between my collaborators, are beginning to elaborate, crystalise, solidify and build. I have been talking with the British composer Robert Saxton about some of or shared interests, and, responding to the fantastic foliage of the vault, he has come up with the idea of a clearing. We have been talking about the, in some way, buried Danish history of this church – after all it was the Danish Reformation which was responsible for the ‘clearing’ of much of the church. So the subject of Holger Dansk came up, and we have decided that his miniature will clear and reveal this Danish Folk Tune.

The Danish Folk Song which Robert Saxton will use

I sent him my crude translation of the poem:

‘Dear Robert, Holger Dansk (the  Danish ‘Once and Future King;) sings:

‘Greetings to you, my my old  fatherland
Don’t you remember who I am?
Once I was a famous man
They called me Holger Danske’
He sits under Elsinor Castle, his rusted sword on his lap, waiting….
And now I wait for what Saxton will do with this beautiful tune.

The beginning of Staffan Storm’s answer to the Chapel

Meanwhile, Staffan Storm has completed a set of three miniatures. Here’s a glimpse of one of them. I have spent the past few days digging into these lovely pieces, violin in hand.

31st July – belated update!

Other projects have demanded much attention for the past month, but there have been wonderful developments, which I will begin to report on, in no particular order, here. This morning I had a workshop, on Zoom with Daniel Hjorth, whose piece, ‘Insight’, arrived two weeks ago. I am always a little nervous, meeting a new collaborator: what if I play badly? What if they are disappointed. And Daniel’s piece is very delicate, very graceful – I want to do it justice.

8 am Zoom Workshop! Lots of coffee and laughter – working with composer Daniel Hjorth on his wonderful piece for my project inspired the Sankt Petri Kyrka, 31 07 24

I needn’t have worried: Daniel is an inspired collaborator, and I am so excited and moved by his ideas about the constant presence of The Voice, or rather, Voices, in the music. As I suspected, he has a finely calibrated ear for colour, timbre and line, which led me to shapes and textures which are new to me. more on this piece to follow.

In the meantime, Robert Saxton, currently sailing across the Atlantic, finished his piece. Here it is

Now I have to drive to Cornwall, to play Bach, Telemann and much more. So I will be writing more over the weekend, but in the meantime, my friend, composer David Riebe, has written his impressions of what he might do with the ideas around the chapel:
‘After revisiting the chapel (I’ve been there before, but it was many years ago) and also reading about the other composers’ ideas for the project, I think that rather than choosing one or a few motifs in the chapel to base my piece on, I would like it to be a comment on the overall impression: the almost overwhelming multitude of different objects, saints, animals etc, all entangled in the green foliage. It is almost impossible to imagine how it was when the entire church was like that! It is a good example of the horror vacui that was common in medieval times. Maybe that could even be the title of the piece. The “fear of emptiness” can also relate in a broad way to our society of today, where every empty second must be filled with some sort of consumption, not least on social media. The concept also immediately evokes several different musical ideas.’
8th August 2024 New York City
Things are beginning to move fast, and time has not been on my side. But this arrived in my E mail this morning, from the great Danish composer Bent Sørensen:

Part of ‘Magdalena’ by Bent Sorensen

Immediately, I wrote to him:

‘The page that you have sent me is exquisite. It’s already printed out, and this afternoon, the violin will come out of the case, and I will get into the technical detail that I love so much. I already have a lot of (happy) questions – about voice leading, timbre, syntax…/I will be spending the day in the Metropolitan Museum, where I do a lot of projects – the moment that I saw your piece, I thought of the Grancino instrument in the clip below. /And yesterday, working with my team there, I was thinking about ideas relating to music and the body – the museum is closed and empty on Wednesdays, so we began with Cycladic ‘violin-shaped’ figures, and found out way to the late medieval section, and eventually to Titian. Your piece ‘fits’ this dialogue/conversation (still in my mind today) so well. Going back today, so I and my wife will have Magdalena on our mind – min kone hedder ‘Malene’, saa Magdalenen er her altid! So much to say, but for now. Thanks so much!’ PSS E mail to BS 8 8 24

September – back in London and the project is heating up. 

It has been a while since I posted anything, but now we have a full slate of pieces, and lots of conversations going on with composers from American to Kosovo. I will start documenting them now.

Today – 17th September – I worked on the second piece from Rolf Martinsson: Here it is with my working notes. Along with the remarks and technical ideas I have added to the score, I included the following E mail.

‘Dear Rolf/This is beautiful – see attached marked up up score. There’s nothing to change here,  but of course, I have various suggestions for the scratch tones – so many wonderful options. And I wonder if I could do the fermata at 34-35 as a great arch – like one of the Saint’s visions, or the Humla-Bi which was her heraldic sign. /  I really enjoyed your number-interval generator: Guess what, it is exactly the same system as Michael Alec Rose used in a new piece filmed last week (he used ‘1685’!)./In friendship and admiration -Peter  (E mail to Rolf Martinsson 17 09 24)

This morning I had a wonderful workshop session with Staffan Storm on his three, pieces. [tbc]