Rivers of Light, Ēriks Ešenvalds (UBC University Singers, Graeme Langager, conductor)

Rivers of Light by Ēriks Ešenvalds performed by the UBC University Singers. Graeme Langager, conductor.
Deirdre Morgan, jaw harp
Denise Chung, soprano
Thomas Dalton, baritone
Live performance at the annual UBC Invitational Choral Festival
October 18, 2024
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
University of British Columbia
Vancouver BC, Canada
UBC Choral Studies: Graeme Langager, Director of Choral Activities
Sámi folk songs
Kuovsakasah reukarih tåkko teki, sira ria,
tåkko teki,
sira ria, sira siraa ria.
Northern Lights slide back and forth, sira ria,
back and forth,
sira ria, sira siraa ria.
Guovssat, guovssat radni go, libai libai libaida,
Ruoná gákti, nu nu nu.
Northern Lights, blanket shivering, libai libai libaida,
green coat [traditional Sámi costume], nu nu nu.
English Text (chorus):
Winter night,
the sky is filled with symphony of light,
the sky is flooded with rivers of light.
The doors of heaven have been opened tonight.
From horizon to horizon misty dragons swim through the sky,
green curtains billow and swirl,
fast-moving, sky-filling, the tissues of gossamer.
Nothing can be heard.
Light shakes over the vault of heaven,
its veil of glittering silver changing
now to yellow, now to green, now to red.
It spreads in restless change, into waving,
into many-folded bands of silver.
It shimmers in tongues of flame,
over the very zenith it shoots a bright ray up
until the whole melts away
as a sigh of departing soul in the moonlight,
leaving a glow in the sky
like the dying embers of a great fire.
(Text compiled by the composer after writings by Charles Francis Hall, Fridjof Nansen and various other writings on the Northern Lights)