(Mourning Music for Olof Palme)

For solo violin and chamber ensemble (violin, cello, clarinet, horn, piano)
Premiere: 1986, Göteborg (Konserthus), played by the Ensemble des XX. Jahrhunderts, René Staar, violin, Peter Burwik, conductor
Duration: ca. 6 minuten
Score: ECA Nr. S 75002
Available through:
Edition Contemp Art (Verlagsgruppe Hermann)
Goldschmiedgasse 10, A-1010 Wien
E-mail: sales{at}hermann.eu | tel: +43 / 1 / 534 62 40 | Fax: +43 / 1 / 534 62 67

In the midst of composing the Fragments of a Dream Play: the Growing Castle op. 13 news of the murder of Swedish President, Olof Palme thrust itself upon the world. The composer, who grew up in Sweden, felt drawn into the mood of the Swedish people, and was moved spontaneously to compose Funeral Music for Olof Palme. The first performance of this »Funeral Music« composed between the 3rd and 6th of March, 1986 was inserted as a 2nd movement of the Growing Castle on the occasion of a Swedish tour of the Ensemble XX. Jahrhundert under the baton of Peter Burwik.

In the summer of this same year the composer decided to separate the Funeral Music from the Fragments of a Dream Play and to let it stand as an independent work. The work – built on the intervals of the tones f-a-e, a fifth and a minor second – begins with a musical and dramatic interpretation of a violent death. After the last heartbeats and breaths unfold a doloroso, an adagio morendo concludes the actual Funeral Music.