Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Niels Rosing-Schow
Nanu (2007)
- Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
Programme Note
Nanu is a short dramatic scene.
Nanu means bear in Greenlandic. The basis of the work is a Greenlandic melody which also appears in my work Piseq. The melody is mentioned in among other places the ethnomusicologist Michael Hauser’s book Traditional Greenlandic Music. where it is said that the song is part of the legend Anoritôk:
“The myth tells of the woman Anoritôk, whose son was killed by his fellow hunters because he had teased them. As a compensation she was given a bear cub which she reared and took care of. The bear played with the children of the settlement, and later the hunters took it out hunting with them. It was very good at providing food for its foster-mother, but when the hunting failed, it began to steal from the other hunters’ meat scaffolds. In the end they killed it. Anoritôk searched in vain and went up into the country behind the houses and sang:
She who believes she has a bear as a child,
Is marked by so much seeking,
A bear, a bear, a bear.
She kept on singing for a long time, and at last she turned into a stone. People used to bring sacrifices to her and smear her mouth with blubber.”
When performing Nanu the singer should be dressed in a dark cloak with a hood or similar clothes that reach all the way to the floor. At first the singer kneels on the stage with her or his back to the audience, covered by the cloak. The stones on which she/he plays should be hidden from the audience. The saxophonist is first heard backstage, but in the first part of the piece moves on to the stage and circles around the singer, who begins to move, preferably rocking like a Greenlandic drum singer, as the melismata grow in compass and strength, and slowly gets up when the melody appears in the saxophone part (b. 81). At last she/he turns around and faces the audience at the point where the melody appears in the singing part (b. 90). In the last part of the work the singer turns around again and stands with her/his back to the audience (like a pillar of stone), and the saxophonist withdraws circling.
Any lighting should be simple with the singer in focus and should follow the curve of the music: dimmed light in the beginning, maximum light when the singer sings towards the audience, dimmed light at the end.
Niels Rosing-Schow
Nanu means bear in Greenlandic. The basis of the work is a Greenlandic melody which also appears in my work Piseq. The melody is mentioned in among other places the ethnomusicologist Michael Hauser’s book Traditional Greenlandic Music. where it is said that the song is part of the legend Anoritôk:
“The myth tells of the woman Anoritôk, whose son was killed by his fellow hunters because he had teased them. As a compensation she was given a bear cub which she reared and took care of. The bear played with the children of the settlement, and later the hunters took it out hunting with them. It was very good at providing food for its foster-mother, but when the hunting failed, it began to steal from the other hunters’ meat scaffolds. In the end they killed it. Anoritôk searched in vain and went up into the country behind the houses and sang:
She who believes she has a bear as a child,
Is marked by so much seeking,
A bear, a bear, a bear.
She kept on singing for a long time, and at last she turned into a stone. People used to bring sacrifices to her and smear her mouth with blubber.”
When performing Nanu the singer should be dressed in a dark cloak with a hood or similar clothes that reach all the way to the floor. At first the singer kneels on the stage with her or his back to the audience, covered by the cloak. The stones on which she/he plays should be hidden from the audience. The saxophonist is first heard backstage, but in the first part of the piece moves on to the stage and circles around the singer, who begins to move, preferably rocking like a Greenlandic drum singer, as the melismata grow in compass and strength, and slowly gets up when the melody appears in the saxophone part (b. 81). At last she/he turns around and faces the audience at the point where the melody appears in the singing part (b. 90). In the last part of the work the singer turns around again and stands with her/his back to the audience (like a pillar of stone), and the saxophonist withdraws circling.
Any lighting should be simple with the singer in focus and should follow the curve of the music: dimmed light in the beginning, maximum light when the singer sings towards the audience, dimmed light at the end.
Niels Rosing-Schow