My first document by Juhi Bansal Music

Aurora For unaccompanied SATB chorus 2022

Music and text by Juhi Bansal

Inuit cultures tell many legends about the aurora borealis, aksarnirq. In some tribes, the spirits are believed to be carrying torches to guide us to the sky, in others, these incredible lights are manifestations of spirits playing, dancing, moving in joy and play. This piece pulls together words from some of these legends alongside vocal solos reminiscent of a Scandinavian shepherding tradition to celebrate ice, winter, and the spectacular natural play of light.

With the utmost gratitude to Bea Sider for her help and advice on the Sámi tradition of kulning.

Commissioned by the William Baker Choral Foundation for Vox Venti (Ed Frazier Davis, Artistic Director).

Ice

Cracked the sun’s rays

Into wild colors.

In the sky

Spirits carry

Torches of fire.

Lighting our path

The heavens dance.

Aurora

Notes on performance:

Style and Timbre for vocal solos:

The vocal solos in this piece draw inspiration from an incredible type of Scandinavian shepherding tradition called kulning. In rural, mountainous parts of Norway and Sweden, it is often used to call livestock down from high mountain pastures where they have been grazing.

The timbre is very different from choral singing, and while this piece certainly does not require that the soloists become experts in kulning, they are encouraged to listen to examples of the style and draw upon the timbre as much as they feel comfortable doing.

Some crucial characteristics of kulning are:

- Sung entirely without vibrato

- The timbre is piercing and slightly nasal (but without ever sounding or feeling strained). This particular timbre, filled with high partials, helps it carry for miles across the wide open mountain spaces to where livestock could hear it.

- Despite the piercing quality, the tone is light and flexible, filled with grace notes and glissandi. The quality comes from the sound placement and directed throwing of the voice. It should never feel forced or heavy, or strain to artificially create a sheer volume of sound.

Three audio/video examples are included to help you find the tone:1

1) Maria Misgeld – Lever Du (Kulning) – A performance of a traditional Swedish herding song in the kulning style

2) Jennie Tiderman-Österberg – kulning

3) A video tutorial by Maria Misgeld (from Youtube) on finding the vocal placement for kulning

(There are many more on Youtube)

Male voices: Traditionally, kulning in male voices is also extremely high, piercing, in falsetto, typically in the same register as the women sing. As the original technique is even more specialized in male voices than female, the singers for the tenor and bass solos

1 Please note, I do not own any of these examples. They are downloaded from Youtube only for ease of access and an archive in case they are later removed. They are all property of their respective creators. These (and many more kulning examples) can be found on Youtube and various public domain sources.

should sing in a regular, comfortable chest voice, making sure to maintain a nasal, piercing quality without vibrato.

N.B. Time should be kept for the conductor to hear the soloists together and make sure the timbres chosen match/complement each other.

Ornaments:

1) All grace notes are to be sung rapidly, before the beat.

2) Glissandi are articulated in two different ways.

a. Bracketed arrival note in glissandi: Where the arrival note is bracketed, it should be slid into imperceptibly, with no emphasis or rearticulation at all on the landing note. It should sound like the first pitch simply melts into the second.

b. Accented arrival note (without bracket) in glissandi: In this second figure, the arrival note of the glissando should be strongly accented and clearly rearticulated.

Piercing - no vibrato, slightly nasal - like a shepherd kulning (See performance notes)

(Singing throughout on the 'i' (ee) vowel, widening and opening freely to /ɛ/ or /ɑ/ )

very soft and round, staggered breathing

   Soprano Solo SOPRANO ALTO TENOR BASS Piano (for rehearsal only) p p Ethereal, haunting q = 80 - 90 3 6 mmm p ooo p ooo p ooo p p                

   To Ed, in gratitude and friendship Juhi Bansal Aurora  

breathing 3  

hum, staggered

 3   



    3 3                                                                                                     

      S. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. p 11 7 S. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. (p) 12 Ice p cracked thesun's Ice p crackedthesun's mmm Ice p cracked thesun's            3         3   3  15   3     3 3           3 3    3                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     2

(Singing throughout on the 'i' (ee) vowel, widening and opening freely to /ɛ/ or /ɑ/ )

very soft and round, staggered breathing

      S. A. T. B. Pno. ray's into-wild co f lors, - Ice p cracked thesun's 22 18 raysinto-wild co f lors, - Ice p crackedthesun's rays into-wild co f lors - Ice p cracked thesun's f p S. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. ppp p p 26 29 25 ray's into-wild co f lors,p raysinto-wild co f lors,p ooo p rays into-wild co f lors,p ooo p ooo p f p                        

Piercing, kulning-like as before

        

   

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               3

Piercing - no vibrato, slightly nasal - like a shepherd kulning (See performance notes)

(Singing throughout on the 'i' (ee) vowel, widening and opening to /ɛ/ or /ɑ/ as needed for comfort)

very soft and round, staggered breathing

   S. Solo A. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. p 33 31 ppp ooo p ooo     

  

3 3  3           3  3 3                                                                                                                                                           4

   S. Solo A. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. (p) 37 41 (p) In (p) the ooo In (p) the In (p) the In (p) the (p)      3  3  3 3   3 3      3 3 3   3                                                                                                                                      5

      S. A. T. B. Pno. skyspirits-carry-tor ches --of fi f re, - In p thesky 44 47 42 skyspirits-carry-tor ches --of fir f re, - In p thesky skyspirits-carry-tor ches --of fi f re, - In p thesky skyspirits-carry-tor ches --of fi f re, - In p thesky f p S. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. p 50 54 49 spirits-carry-tor ches ----of fi f re.spirits-carry-tor ches ----of fi f re.spirits-carry-tor ches ----of fi f re.spirits-carry-tor ches ----of fi f re.p f   3 3   3 3     3 3   3 3  3 3  3 3   Piercing, kulning-like

( 'i'

to /ɛ/ or /ɑ/ )    3 3 p   3 p     3 3 p   3 3 p  3  3                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      6

as before

(ee) vowel, widening and opening freely

Piercing, kulning-like as before

( 'i' (ee) vowel, widening and opening freely to /ɛ/ or /ɑ/ )

Piercing - No vibrato, slightly nasal - like a shepherd kulning (See performance notes)

(Singing throughout on the 'i' (ee) vowel, widening and opening to /ɛ/ or /ɑ/ as needed for comfort)

   S. Solo A. Solo T. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. 56 60 55 p pp p ooo (p) ooo (p) ooo (p) ooo (p) p  

     

   3    3     3       3    3                                                                                                                                   7

* Alto and tenor soloists: If either of these two soloists prefer to sing the ossia in the section between mm 65 - 69, then both singers should perform their respective ossias. (This is to create a balanced chord in mm 67)

   S. Solo A. Solo T. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. 65 61 ooo ooo ooo 

  Alto solo ossia *   3     3   3 3    3 3   3   3 3  3                                                                                                                                                                             8

   S. Solo A. Solo T. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. (p) 68 66 (p) (p) Light p espressivo ing -ourpath, Light p espressivo ing -ourpath,                                              3        3      Tenor solo ossia *          3     3            3  3 3                                                                                                             9

      S. A. T. B. Pno. Lighting-ourpath, Lighting-ourpath, 72 76 Lighting-ourpath, p espressivo Lighting-our p espressivo Lighting-ourpath, S. A. T. B. Pno. Lighting-ourpath, 80 77 Lighting-ourpath, path, Lighting-ourpath, Lighting-ourpath,  3 3  3     3   3  3 3 3   3 3  3  3    3  3  3 3  3 3                                                                                                                                                                                                                         10

      S. A. T. B. Pno. the (p) heavens-dance 84 82 Lighting-ourpath, mmm mmm mmm Lighting-ourpath mmm S. A. T. B. Pno. theheavens-dance theheavens-dance 87 90 mmm mmm mmm mmm   3  3   hum, staggered breathing  3    hum, staggered breathing   3  hum, staggered breathing  3  3  3  3  3 3   3        3 3  3                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            11

   S. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. p 93 96 92 theheavens-dance ooo ooo mmm ooo ooo ooo ooo     3  3  3        3  3 3                                                                                                                               12

Piercing, kulning-like as before

( 'i' (ee) vowel, widening and opening freely to /ɛ/ or /ɑ/ )

Piercing, kulning-like as before

( 'i' (ee) vowel, widening and opening freely to /ɛ/ or /ɑ/ )

   S. Solo A. Solo T. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. p p 100 97 p p        

     

                                                                                                                              13

Piercing - No vibrato, slightly nasal - like a shepherd kulning (See performance notes)

(Singing throughout on the 'i' (ee) vowel, widening and opening to /ɛ/ or /ɑ/ as needed for comfort)

   S. Solo A. Solo T. Solo B. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. 104 102 ppp ooo          

  3     3     3     3                                                                                                                          14

   S. Solo A. Solo T. Solo B. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. 108 107 ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo                                                                                                                                                                                15

   S. Solo A. Solo T. Solo B. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. 112 ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo   3      3                                                                                                                                                                     16

   S. Solo A. Solo T. Solo B. Solo S. A. T. B. Pno. pp 116 pp pp pp pp ooo ooo ooo pp ooo ooo ooo pp ooo ooo pp ooo pp pp  3  3        Bass solo ossia   3                                                                                                                                                                                                    17