Hrím

For chamber orchestra
Duration 8 min.
Instrumentation: fl.ob+ca.cl+bcl / hn.tbn / pf.cel / str[1.1.1.1.1]

Written for UCSD New Music Ensemble. 
Premiered by CAPUT Ensemble at the National Gallery of Iceland, May 5th 2010.
Funded in part by The Iceland National Broadcasting Services Composers’ Fund.

Selected reviews:
"Hrím was beautiful, seductive, inevitable and reassuring. ... Thorvaldsdottir’s ear is powering the discourse in Hrím just as much as her brain." - Andrew Mellor, Seismograf, January 30 2018

"In just eight minutes, [Hrím] perfectly encapsulates her uncanny knack for conjuring the natural world. … Not through quaint, picturesque mimicry, but with potent evocations of elemental power, flux and potential." - Steve Smith, The New York Times, December 10th 2013

"Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “Hrim” was about dispersion — the idea of fragments and motifs traveling through the ensemble, transforming a static harmony into a shimmering, harmonically ambiguous, thoroughly enveloping texture. … The performances were consistently invigorating. … In Ms. Thorvaldsdottir’s piece, the strings and woodwinds effectively created a dark atmosphere and the impression of a distant, howling wind early on, before melting into the work’s morphing harmonic fabric." - Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, December 6th 2011

Instrumentation:
Flute, oboe/also plays english horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, horn, trombone, piano/also plays celeste, 2 violins, viola, cello & double bass.

Program notes:
Hrím was written in late 2009 and early 2010 as a commission for The UCSD New Music Ensemble to serve as a companion piece to Ligeti's chamber concerto.

The piece is inspired by the notion of dispersion, represented as release and echoing in the sense that single elements in the music are released and spread through the ensemble in various ways throughout the process of the piece. The music is in one short movement.

The work was funded in part by The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service Composers’ fund.

Release:
Released on Rhízōma, Anna’s debut portrait album, in October 2011, by Innova Recordings. Rhízōma was re-released on Sono Luminus is 2020.