Vidar Kristensen: Song of the Mountain People for Singing Violist (2019)

Описание: Vidar Kristensen: Song of the Mountain People for Singing Violist (2019)
Live recording by Povilas Syrrist-Gelgota
Dominican Church of Apostles St. Philip and St. Jacob, Vilnius, Lithuania 1.10.2025


Composer's note about the music:
“Song of the Mountain People” is based on a folk song from one of the indigenous ethnic groups in Taiwan, the Paiwan people - 排灣族, an ethnic group with less than 100 000 people, who mainly live in the Southern
part of the Central mountain range in Taiwan.
The folk song is a simple, mesmerizing melody that I heard sung beautifully by a Paiwan woman on Youtube, and I decided to use a short section of the beginning of the melody as basis for this piece. I met a folk singer of the Paiwan tribe in Taiwan in the summer 2025 and he explained that the lyrics is about longing for the hometown, and the love for their family.
The melody is presented several times in a very tender way, that resembles the way it was sung when I heard it, but I also transform the melody to a more majestic character, that reflects the absolutely stunning, majestic,
beautiful and mysterious mountains of Taiwan, the mountains that is the original home of the Paiwan people.
I don't have any personal connection with the Paiwan people, but I found the melody so beautiful that I wanted to incorporate parts of it in my music.

The piece is available in two versions, one for solo viola and one for singing violist.

Private photos from Alishan and Pinglin in Taiwan.