Arctic Sonata

This programmatic sonata is dedicated to my good Newfie friend and guitarist Steve Cowan. It is influenced by the two Icelandic sagas (the Saga of Erik the Red, and Greenland Saga) that tell the tale of Icelandic Vikings colonizing Greenland, and briefly and abruptly, North America. The 1st movement, Voyage, is in three connected sections. These three sections are musical representations of the three lands the Vikings sailed to in North America: Helluland, Markland and Vínland. My vision for this opening movement was to mimic those epic Viking dudes sailing between the three lands, Helluland is most likely Baffin island and is described as being inhospitable and rocky, Markland is probably Labrador and is described as a big forest and Vínland is Newfoundland, described as being nice and supposedly had grapes/berries to make wine. The 2nd movement, L’Anse aux Meadows, is named after the archaeological site in Newfoundland were Leifur Eiríkson (son of Eric the Red who colonized Greenland) formed a small settlement in 1000 or 1001 (called Leifsbúðir in the sagas). This movement represents the rest and peacefulness I imagine he and his fellow Vikings would’ve felt after sailing to Newfoundland, although it didn’t last too long… (Why those guys always had to go and kill each other I will never understand) The 3rd movement, Battle (the Skrælings), characterizes the encounter between the Viking Thorfinn Karlsefni (who led an expedition alongside 160 Greenlanders to try to colonize North America) and the natives of America (called skraelings in the sagas) while staying at L’Anse aux Meadows. I don’t know how much truth there is to this event occurring but nonetheless it seems that Thorfinn was the first European to come into contact with the indigenous people of the Americas. Gulli Björnsson