Composer's Note
Pater Noster was originally part of my album Aejlies Gaaltije – The Sacred Source, released in 2004. This SSAA choral version was created for the choir Cantus for their album Northern Lights (2017). The idea behind Aejlies Gaaltije – The Sacred Source was to combine parts of the traditional Latin Mass with elements of the Sámi yoik tradition, other Norwegian folk music and the Finnish music tradition. Here the focus is mainly on the Latin influence, but I include a solo theme from bar 18 taken from the prelude of this Mass setting. This may be performed by a solo soprano or a small group.


This solo theme is inspired by the yoik tradition by using yoik syllables with no meaning (as a guide: ‘a’ as in ‘far’, ‘o’ as in ‘moon’, ‘j’ as in ‘yes’), but you can also hear a strong influence from the 12-tone technique used by composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and others: from bar 21 there is a complete 12-tone row. The traditional yoik uses only a few tones to create the melody. Here I have done the opposite and somehow I feel it still relates to the yoik, because if you divide the 12-tone row into smaller parts, all the short motifs have a yoik-like melodic shape. It is ok for the soloist or group to be quite rhythmically free, and the rest of the choir could eventually wait for the soloist at bar 24 before singing ‘debitoribus nostris’. Likewise the soloist could wait for the choir before singing ‘ja’ in bar 25, if necessary. Bar 25 should therefore be fully synchronised.


Frode Fjellheim - 2017