Pischop (2025)
(for Trumpet and String Orchestra)

Pischop, for trumpet and string orchestra, was written for trumpet soloist Jeroen Berwaerts, who not only performs as the soloist but also leads the ensemble. With this in mind, I created a piece in which the trumpet and strings is in close dialogue, built on imitation and rhythmic patterns that often originate with the soloist and then spread out through the ensemble. But the work also contains two calmer sections, where the soloist plays a lullaby-like melody using a cup mute (a very dampening mute), set against a sustained string texture that slowly and almost imperceptibly transforms and almost twisting itself out of the soloist’s grasp.

While working on Pischop, I received the sad news that Danish composer Per Nørgård (1932-2025) had passed away. His compositional technique, the infinity series, has greatly influenced my musical thinking, and traces of it were already present in the piece I was composing. I chose to “zoom in” on these ideas - particularly on a specific rhythm drawn from Nørgård’s infinity universe. This small rhythm consists of two consecutive notes, and Nørgård himself gave it the onomatopoeic name pischop. For me, it became a beautiful illustration of the essence of Per Nørgård’s thinking, where a simple little element simultaneously is a open door to infinity.

Pischop was commissioned by four different orchestras: Camerata Bern (Switzerland), Aichi Chamber Orchestra (Japan), Musica Vitae (Sweden), and Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn (Germany). The piece was conceived to form an unexpected whole together with a Baroque trumpet concerto and arrangements of Jacques Brel’s songs for trumpet and strings.

Pischop carries the subtitle Hommage à Per Nørgård.

Britta Byström, 2025