Berglind Tómasdóttir – Paulas Song

Paula’s Song

I. Once Upon A Time
II. Here
II. There

Paula’s Song is a piece for flute, electronics and optional video, dedicated to Paula Gudmundson. The project has been made possible by Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry, and Scholarship awards from the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Minnesota.

The work is in three movements and is written for a C-flute and a bass flute. The electronics serve as an atmospheric background to the second and the third movements and mainly consist of sounds coming from an instrument called Lokkur. The instrument is a “historical” instrument, which I developed in relation to imagined stories of a music tradition amongst Icelandic settlers, women in particularly, in North-America around the turn of the 20th Century. The optional video contains footage shot by my uncle years ago and serves to underpin the nostalgic feel of the work.

When Mrs Gudmundson contacted me with the request of writing a piece for her, I immediately thought about my project Lokkur. Being a descendant of Icelandic settlers herself, Paula Gudmundson and her origin, became an inspiration for the piece; in dialogue with the invented tradition of the history of Lokkur.

– Reykjavík, January 2020, Berglind Tómasdóttir