Northern Lights - Ēriks Ešenvalds

Trinity University Chamber Singers
Gary Seighman, conductor
November 3, 2021
Margarite B. Parker Chapel

Northern Lights - Eriks Esenvalds
Mixed choir, water-tuned glasses, and chimes.
Featuring tenor soloist Colin Lekki
Musica Baltica, 2012

The Aurora Borealis has inspired countless stories from early peoples. For those in the region around modern-day Latvia, the northern lights were the spirits of fallen warriors fighting in the sky.

Ešenvalds combines a Latvian folk song about this legend with observations made by nineteenth-century Arctic explorers, Charles Francis Hall and Fridtjof Nansen.

TEXT
How many nights against the North wind
I saw the Northern Lights fighting;
Fighting in the sky, the Northern Lights
Bring wars to our land.
(in Latvian)

It was night, and I had gone on deck several times
Iceberg was silent; I too was silent
It was true dark and cold
At nine o'clock I was below in my cabin
When the captain hailed me with the words:
"Come above, Hall, at once! The world is on fire!"
I knew his meaning, and, quick as thought
I rushed to the companion stairs
In a moment I reached the deck
And as the cabin door swung open
A dazzling light, overpow'ring light burst upon my startled senses!
Oh, the whole sky was one glowing mass of colored flames, so mighty, so brave!
Like a pathway of light the northern lights seemed to draw us into the sky
Yes, it was harp-music, wild storming in the darkness;
The strings trembled and sparkled in the glow of the flames like a shower of fiery darts
A fiery crown of auroral light cast a warm glow across the arctic ice
Again at times it was like softly playing, gently rocking silvery waves
On which dreams travel into unknown worlds
[Charles Francis Hall & Fridtjof Nansen]

Historical photos are from various expeditions by Nansen