Frederik Magle’s Pastorale for piano is drawn from an improvisation performed on October 6th, 2019, at Saint Paul’s church in Copenhagen to mark the inauguration of the church’s new Steinway concert grand. It takes as its basis Johan Henrik Nebelong’s melody for the autumn hymn Nu falmer skoven trindt om land (Now the forest fades around the land). The hymn’s text (by Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig) is predominantly a pastoral one – one that acknowledges God’s blessing upon humanity for the wonders of nature, undoubtedly, but also one that is content to marvel at the natural world itself, in both its beauty and its toil.
This contemplative, awestruck mood is strikingly captured in Frederik Magle’s improvisation on the hymn’s tune. Beginning with a pulsing pedal tone, the first strains of the melody ring out over a simple undulating harmony, before gradually unfolding into a rich, harmonious texture reaching the very depths of the piano. The pulsing tones become the vehicle for lush romantic harmonies that underpin melodic fragments explored in all registers of the piano, before we return to a gentle, contented quietude that settles once again.
–Acorus Calamus, editor
DURATION: ca. 4 minutes
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Anonymous (verified owner) –
Heather Vos (verified owner) –
I absolutely love this! It is a beautiful piece of music, very accessible and a joy to play. I am also an organist and this feels like it could be transcribed to organ very well. Thank you for your gift to us.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Sara (verified owner) –
It was a very enjoyable piece to play. I have a few discerning listeners at church who appreciated the piece. Would consider more like that.
Gerald Martindale (verified owner) –
Lone (verified owner) –
Beautiful and not difficult to play
Volker (verified owner) –
…. en af det mest stemningsfulde komposition over denne salme – elsker den !
Christopher Laber (verified owner) –
stephan mohr (verified owner) –
pdf has good layout and quality and a fair price…
kr 53 = eur 7 (not 398…)
Leonard Wiseman (verified owner) –
Easy to order. Just such a pretty piece of music, love it
JOAN CANET (verified owner) –
Tom Davison (verified owner) –
All good. We used your score for a music competition. Site reading.
Alessandro RAMPAZZO (verified owner) –