The Peace of Wild Things

"In "The peace of wild things", the American poet Wendell Berry (born 1934) deals with existential anxiety. Though published in 1968, the message is just as urgent today. Our news feeds shower us with reports about war, climate and environmental catastrophes, and about authoritarian regimes advancing their positions. What will become of us? What kind of world are we passing on to our children? This poem gives me a ray of hope in the midst of despair, offering a moment's rest while my own and all mankind's smallness is revealed. It also allows me to sense the presence of "something greater". My musical interpretation is based on these reflections. The conflict between anxiety and peace, dissonance and consonance, open textures versus clusters. The piece and its phrases are well-suited to interpretation, and to being performed with a great deal of freedom." Hakan Svensson