MÖRSUGUR
poetic tale fyrir voice and audiovisuals
Winner of Gríman 2024, the Icelandic Performing Arts Award, Singer of the Year
"Heiða’s rendition of this was remarkable: what emerged from her mouth was more than mere imitation, a complex form of vocalise – either sub- or super-expressive, depending on your perspective – continually tilting between dual impressions of bird and woman. Both musically and visually, Mörsugur was primarily about atmosphere and texture, with a strong emphasis on the natural world, though its earthy, folk intimacy took a surprising turn later on, entering a beat-laden stylised frenzy with strobes and swirling purple lights. It all made for a strange but unforgettable experience."
MÖRSUGUR - Trailer
Mörsugur is an opera for voice and audiovisuals created from a poetic tale by Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir. Located in folkloric Icelandic nature, the fragmented storytelling ventures on frequent detours on behalf of mythic-like heroines on which the narrator is built upon. This captivating work is the result of a creative collaboration between Ásbjörg Jónsdóttir, Heiða Árnadóttir and Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir. Mörsugur explores the delicate nuances of existing between worlds - light and darkness, memory and the present. The performance is interwoven with video art created by Ásdís Birna Gylfadóttir.
Mörsugur was composed for Dark Music Days 2023 and premiered in Norðurljós Hall in Harpa on January 25th 2023. The composer, lyricist, and performer received an artist grant to work on and develop the piece. The group also received funding from the Music Fund to cover direction, costume design, and the work of a visual artist on video production and photography for promotional material. Heiða Árnadóttir was the resident artist of Dark Music Days for three years, and this performance was her final contribution to the festival.
Mörsugur is built around a nonlinear narrative focusing on exploring contrasts present in the Icelandic landscape and seasons. The piece travels through a range of emotions and showcases diverse vocal styles and nuances, from pop vocals to extended vocal techniques. The performance is a staged composition reminiscent of music theater, about 50 minutes long. Heiða Árnadóttir, the singer, is alone on the stage the entire time, while electronic sounds and video works frame the performance. The work brings together Icelandic poetry, electronic music, acoustic music, experimental music, visual art, and theater, creating a cohesive and powerful experience based on texture, atmosphere, and mood. The progression of the work is based on transformations of emotion, atmosphere, and contrasts.
The focus of the work was to explore the possibilities of experimental singing and body movement as narrative forms in performing arts. As a result, the work was created in close dialogue with the performer, making it tailor-made for Heiða as a singer and allowing her to fully utilize her strengths in interpretation and singing. Toward the end of the process, visual artist Ásdís Birna Gylfadóttir joined the project, contributing video works that became part of the stage design, and also assisting with lighting design. Dramaturg Kolbrún Anna Björnsdóttir also contributed to lighting design, and costume designer Heiða Eiríksdóttir created the costume, which was sewn by Katla Sigurðardóttir. This entire process was completed in close collaboration with the whole team. The lyrics were translated into English by Ragnheiður Erla, Árni Ísaksson, and Ásbjörg Jónsdóttir, with proofreading by Meg Matich.
"[...]Much more involving was Mörsugur, a piece of music theatre (described as a “poetic tale”) by Ásbjörg Jónsdóttir and Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir, given a tour de force solo performance by singer Heiða Árnadóttir. This time a translation was provided, offering an insight into the work’s mix of intimacy and myth, tapping into the country’s legends. Progressing more according to shifting emotional currents than a linear narrative, the performance was a marvellous way for Heiða to conclude her 3-year residency at the festival. She moved between close-up reverie, bathed in and transfixed by light, later (interacting with large video screens) appearing to touch the clouds. In one startlingly powerful sequence, having played imaginary bells with her fingers, she seemingly began to transform into a raven. Heiða’s rendition of this was remarkable: what emerged from her mouth was more than mere imitation, a complex form of vocalise – either sub- or super-expressive, depending on your perspective – continually tilting between dual impressions of bird and woman. Both musically and visually, Mörsugur was primarily about atmosphere and texture, with a strong emphasis on the natural world, though its earthy, folk intimacy took a surprising turn later on, entering a beat-laden stylised frenzy with strobes and swirling purple lights. It all made for a strange but unforgettable experience."
-Simon Cummings, 5:4
MEDIA
MÖRSUGUR - Trailer
© Ásdís Birna Gylfadóttir
Visual artist Ásdís Birna Gylfadóttir created the strong, hypnotising visual world that accompanies Heiða on stage, preferably with two big projectors. The video work became the presence of the nonhuman within the piece, who, rightfully, demanded a loud voice in the story; traveling from our landscapes and beings, into us, to the poetry, then, transforming into videos, and finally, landing as a non-negotiable presence in the concert hall (and then - continuing, and moving on, on, on).
The idea was to have a body of video work to be the stage design but Ásdís' work created something much more, as it ended up being a crucial character in the piece. Heiða claims she is indeed not alone on stage as she is surrounded by the elements of the video that deepen the narrative and experience of the audience.
TEXT
Heiða performs the show in Icelandic. As the audience is greeted into the space, they have the option to receive a small booklet with the poetry in Icelandic and English.
The text comprises of 18 poems on girlhood and womanhood, the-other-than-human and folkloric creatures, and, Icelandic rural culture explored in a narrative that moves seamlessly between modern times and a undefined former time.
The narrator moves between light and dark, meeting herself as a child and grown woman, to tell fragmented tales of her life, interwoven with her matrilineality, as the reclaims her narrative and the becomes-with the-other-than-human.
The text of the piece was written by Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir who explored her own heritage of north-western Icelandic farmer culture, while collecting and connecting stories from female members of her family. She also explored with various writing styles, such as deconstructed Icelandic sound-based poetry.
In 2025, the poetry will be published as a book with a graphic score of the piece, accompanied with a recording of the performance for the reader to listen to while reading the text and graphic score.
SÓLMÁNUÐUR II
nú sólar
og ég elska eins og straumvatn
sem togar í trjágreinar
þar til laufblað hrapar til jarðar
álftin leggst við fætur mér
hún býður mér í dans
gulir hljómar umkringja mig
ég legg augun aftur
fjórar hendur snerta mig
ein úr hverri ætt
tuttugu fingurgómar
einn frá hverri móður sem á móður
þær sem ræktuðu landið á undan mér
TUTTUGU FINGURGÓMAR
ég fæddist í lifandi vatni
með fingurgóma úr silki
óx og hnignaði í grómaðri flægð
sat í berjamó ár eftir ár
og hugsaði um hlýju
um hesta sem skýldu sér á bak við vind
tuttugu fingurgómar sem flæddu
í kringum lífkerfi og rökkur
snertu verur sneru aftur heim
lokkuðu tímann meðfram ströndum
veiddu og gengu um með hann í vasanum
þar voru engir þorpsbúar
engin morguntár
mávar sátu fastir heima
engin mamma enginn pabbi
eða kúabjöllur að hóa á krakka í mat
aðeins fingurgómar úr silki
tuttugu
sem nú liggja í dvala
MÖRSUGUR I
vig um í ofak
kofa kofa
vig um í
kofa ko ko
bjuggum um við
jug ko ofa í uggofði
vi gumði ko ko gjum í
vivi gu mof ako kofa
vi vi jug ugg bjug í foka
ði í ok af guj í koka
jug í ko ko
kaði gum í foka
bjugg í koka
vi gum í kof
SÓLMÁNUÐUR II
it suns
and I love like a stream
that pulls branches
until leaves fall down to the ground
the swan lies at my feet
she offers me a dance
yellow sounds surround me
i close my eyes
four hands touch me
one from every family
twenty fingertips
one from every mother that has a mother
that cultivated the land before me
TWENTY FINGERTIPS
my birth was in living water
i had fingertips of silk
grew and decayed in grome, othery, flythe
sat and picked berries year after year
thought about affection
horses that hid behind wind
twenty fingertips that flooded
around ecos and dusk
touched the backs of creatures, turned back home
enticed time along the tideline
trapped it, and carried it in a pocket
there were no villagers
no morning tears
seagulls were stuck at home
no mom no dad
or cowbells to round the kids up
only fingertips of silk
twenty
lying half-asleep
MÖRSUGUR I
wev ed in tuh
hut hut
wev ed in
hut hu hu
lived ed we
iv hu ut in ivute
we vedew hu hu ved in
wewe ve dut uth hut
we we iv ve liv in uht
e in uh tu vil in huhut
iv in hu hu
htew ved in uht
live in huhut
we ved in hu
THE TEAM
Performer: Heiða Árnadóttir
Text and composer: Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir
Composer: Ásbjörg Jónsdóttir
Video art: Ásdís Birna Gylfadóttir
Stage and costumes: Heiða Eiríksdóttir and Katla Sigurðardóttir
The Icelandic singer Heiða Árnadóttir has in her career emphasized on the performance of modern music, folk, jazz, experimental as well as lied music. She has premiered many pieces of Icelandic composers such as Gunnar Karel Másson, Ásbjörg Jónsdóttir, Þórunn Gréta Sigurðardóttir, Þóranna Björnsdóttir, Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson. and Þórunn Björnsdóttir.
In addition to numerous concerts in Iceland, where she has premiered various compositions with Ensemble Adapter and Caput, Heiða has also performed in Holland, Belgium, France, India, Sweden and Denmark. She has also performed during Nordic Music Days, Iceland Airwaves, Skálholt Summer Festival, Siglufjörður Folk Festival, Reykjavík Jazz Festival and various foreign festivals.
Heiða has composed songs and lyrics and is the singer in the band Mógil, which has issued four Cds. Their CD „Ró“ was nominated for the Icelandic Music Awards in 2008 but their newest CD „Adventa“ , based on Gunnar Gunnarsson´s famous novel of the same name, was issued by the German publishing company Winter and Winter in 2019.
Ásbjörg Jónsdóttir (1988- ) is a composer, pianist and jazz vocalist. She received her BA in composition from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2014 and her MA in composition from the same institution in 2018. Ásbjörg is engaged with various musical activities. In addition to her composition career, she conducts a children's choir, teaches music theory and piano. Her music has been performed by Caput, Hljómeyki, Duo Harpverk, Elektra Ensemble, Reykjavík Cathedral Choir and IMPRA. Her music has been performed at the Dark Music Days Festival in Iceland; by Duo Harpverk in 2012 and by Foot in the Door ensemble from The Hartt School (University of Hartford) in 2015. Ásbjörg has also worked on other musical projects such as recordings, arrangements and musical research. In the summer of 2013 and 2018 she undertook a research project on; the music of Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson and jazz in Iceland, funded by the Icelandic Student Innovation Fund. The research project about jazz in Iceland is in collaboration with Þorbjörg Daphne Hall and Oxford University Press. Ásbjörg released a book with 12 of her new songs for children’s choir in April 2019.
Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir is a composer, poet and vocal artist. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Artistic Research Center at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Ragnheiður holds a MA in Creative Writing from the University of Iceland and a BA in Composition from the Icelandic Academy of the Arts. She is a member of the art group Hlökk, the audiovisual collective SÚL_VAD, and the Viennese artist space Die Labile Botschaft. Her practice centres interdisciplinary research on voice through embodiment and sustainability. Working with de- and reconstructing techniques, she explores and forges webs of connectivity with storytelling in unsung places. Ragnheiður's pieces have been presented internationally in various forms, ranging from hidden sound installations in a forest to theatrical vocal performances.
