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Søren Nils Eichberg
Qilaatersorneq
Laureate of the Queen Elisabeth
International Competition for Composers 2001
Søren Nils Eichberg was born on 23 July 1973 in Stuttgart, Germany.
He emigrated to Denmark in 1982, obtaining Danish citizenship in 1989. He
studied piano at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen from 1993
to 1998 with Tom Ernst, thereafter with Arbo Valdma at the Hochschule für
Musik in Cologne. He also pursued private studies and courses with Ferenc
Rados, Hans Leygraf, Paul Badura-Skoda, Rudolf Kehrer among others. Søren
Nils Eichberg has performed in Denmark, Germany, Finland, Austria, the U.K.,
Israel and Poland. As composer - although autodidact - he is influenced mainly
by the Danish composers (Nørgård, Nørholm, Ruders) and
their efforts to combine the revolving adventures of modern experimental complexity
with a more human approach: That the reason for composing still be communication,
rather than obedience to an alleged imperative of progress as a purpose in
itself.
Qilaatersorneq, in the language of the native inhabitants of Greenland
(the Inuit), is the name for the Ritual Drum Dance. The group is driven into
and guided through trance by the Angákoq - its spiritual leader/shaman
- in order to seek healing and advice. The whole ritual is accompanied by
his drumming and singing, gradually developing from a melancholic elegy into
rhythmical frenzy as the group joins in. At the very culmination of collective
ecstasy the Angákoq vanishes, flying to the World of the Higher
Spirits. Upon his return, as sudden and inexplicable as his disappearance,
he describes his voyage to the group and explains to them the commands and
advice of the Spirits. (Note from the composer)