Poul Schierbeck is the composer behind beloved songs such as I Danmark er jeg bød and Det er i ag et vejr. On a new album, soprano Dénise Beck has put together a selection of lesser-known songs, which portray Schierbeck as an exceptionally versatile song composer, with an excellent ability to interpret text in music.
Poul Schierbeck (1888-1949) stands as one of the most important Danish composers of the 19th century. He mastered both simple melodies and large complex formats with technical finesse. Songs with piano form the largest and most important part of Schierbeck's production and his folk songs, which demonstrate his melodic skill, still have a large place in the Danish cultural heritage today.
For the album Selected Songs, soprano Dénise Beck has selected a wide selection from Poul Schierbeck's song production. Both lyrics and music show very different expressions and moods, and originate from different periods of Schierbeck's life, but all testify to the composer's excellent ability to interpret texts in music.
Schierbeck's later songs written after 1924 are composed according to Carl Nielsen's and Thomas Laub's principles, namely singable melodies with small intervals and uniform note values. Almost all the songs are strophic and one hears the era's focus on the simple, folk and tonal song with pleasant melodies, such as Today is a weather, In Denmark I was born and You dear, gentle Danish stream.
The new album was recorded in Berlin during the corona epidemic, where the married couple Dénise Beck and Clemens Hund-Göschel used the shutdowns to immerse themselves in the project. Along the way, it dawned on the musicians that there are aspects of Schierbeck's production they didn't know about, so they began to explore different interpretations and techniques, such as to prepare the piano for the song Vårregnen , so that the sound resembles the sound of rain.
Dénise Beck says that during the recordings she has drawn inspiration from both cabaret, opera and liedsang. She uses all aspects of the voice (and when necessary the less beautiful aspects as well) to demonstrate the full color palette of Schierbeck's song production and his fascinating versatility.
My Wish List
