Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “Heyr þú oss himnum á”: An Icelandic Hymn
The music of the Icelandic composer, Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b. 1977), seems to rise out of remote, rugged landscapes bathed in pale Nordic sunlight. Thorvaldsdottir’s Heyr þú oss himnum á (“Hear us in heaven”), written in 2005 for the Skálholt Summer Concert Series, is a setting of four verses from an ancient Icelandic psalm by Olafur á Söndum (1560–1627). Scored for mixed choir, it is a meditative prayer filled with primal open intervals and …