Elder (2018)
Director: Daniel McIntyre
“Elder is a collection of branches from a family tree long overgrown, a travelogue of a quest to uncover the legacy of the Vikings and their influence on Celts and other civilizations throughout history. On the journey, the film follows the Vikings’ presence throughout Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland, extracting their memory from each site and coupling it with less dominant cultural memory.” Daniel McIntyre
I wanted to play with the concept of time with this score; losing awareness of it. I wanted to pull from viking history, but place them as blips of memory, or false memory/legacy within the score.
Melodic and instrumentation inspiration:
- The main melody takes inspiration from "I Dreamed a Dream.” Not long after the end of the Viking Age a system for writing down music was developed. On a small piece of wood, for us to read, are carved the first bars of the song "I Dreamed a Dream" or "Drømte mig en drøm" (not the “I Dreamed a Dream” that you’re thinking of). http://www.viking.no/e/life/music/e-dromte_mig_en_drom.html
- a type of call that Scandinavian vikings used to do to herd livestock called Kulning.
- The Harp
- Aeolian harp (also wind harp)
- Double recorder
- Rocks rocks that have the property of resonating like a bell
when struck. Ringing rocks are also known as sonorous rocks or lithophonic rocks, as used in
idiophonic musical instruments called lithophones.
- Viking Instruments such as the lur, lyre, cow's horn, and pan flute.
