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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Roger A Mansen (verified owner) –
Lovely piece. Easy to read. I used it for prelude music the week I got it and received many comments about how contemplative and prayerful it was.
Timothy Lee (verified owner) –
Wonderful musical piece, nicely transcribed for piano!
Eileen J. (verified owner) –
Love playing your compositions!
Dana D. –
What a beautiful, deeply moving piece of music that Frederik has composed here. The ‘Pastorale’ brings the story of what the season of Autumn is all about and just how much it changes the landscape we live in.
Great harmonies, lots of rubato, changes in tempo, time signatures and key signatures realistically show the changes that the season of Autumn brings.
Phyllis Kramer –
Gorgeous music. Easy to play. yet interesting. I will be playing it as a prelude.
Rebecca B. (verified owner) –
Christoph (verified owner) –
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) –