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The Journey (Timothy Phelan)!

In the spring of 2015, I was in Sweden to perform a solo

recital !and to conduct a guitar concerto, written by Swedish
composer Erland von Koch, with the Nyköping Philharmonic. !

I had also been commissioned to write and conduct a piece

of music to be performed by a Swedish classical guitar duo
with a guitar orchestra.!

The slow second movement of the concerto was based on a

very beautiful Swedish folksong about emigration to the new
world during time of famine.!

I decided to write something that would link with the guitar

concerto, and that would also tie together our two countries
by using folk songs from both Sweden and Canada. !

And so, based on a bit of research, I invented the following

semi-fictitious story that would serve as the basis for my tone
poem, which I have called The Journey…!

The year is 1870, and a young newlywed couple’s early

hopes and dreams of happiness in rural Sweden are
shattered by the spectre of famine and economic hardship. !

After taking the heart-rending decision to leave family and

homeland behind them, they endure the cruel trans-Atlantic
crossing and witness terrible suffering and loss amongst
their beleaguered fellow passengers. !

Grateful for their own safe arrival on American soil, ! !

they continue on to the Prairies in search of fertile land,
eventually following the lifeblood of the Red River north into
the newly formed Canadian province of Manitoba. !

There they settle the land and make their new home
together, ever mindful of what they have reluctantly left
behind.!

And so, to this purpose, I have based the composition on

themes from three folksongs. !

The first song, Värmlandsvisan, initially appears in a

peaceful major mode, but soon modulates into its original
and more menacing minor key. !
Emigrantvisan, the folksong dealing with the theme of
emigration, also undergoes transformation, ! ! !
at one point even becoming a rollicking sea chanty. !

Upon the safe arrival of the young couple on North American

soil, the listener will hear a hymn-like prayer of thanksgiving
that gives way to a prairie waltz, which then goes on to
incorporate the Canadian folksong Red River Valley.!

Throughout this journey, the voices of the guitar duo! !

represent the emigrant couple, often engaging in dialogue
amidst their ever-changing physical and emotional
environments, even to the point where one voice can be
heard reassuring against the doubts or fears of the partner. !

And in the closing section of the piece, as the couple begins

to settle in their new home, there is a melding of fragments
from all three of the work’s musical themes, as the river –
and indeed life – flow onward against the backdrop of the
endless prairie horizon. !

This story of emigration seems particularly timely, ! !

given our global concern over the plight of the world’s
refugees. !

But even beyond this literal association, is the figurative

reference to the many types of journeys of the human
condition, and the universal struggles faced by us all.!