Erik Valdemar Sköld
"Thank you so much!! I am soo happy!"
(born in 1991) is a composer of contemporary classical music based in Malmö, Sweden.
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Musically trained since the age of three, he began his composition studies in 2013 at St Sigfrid Folkhögskola in Växjö after taking private lessons in music theory for composer Sven Hagvil. Two years later he was accepted into the Academy of Music in Malmö, where he's been a student of composers like Rolf Martinsson, Luca Francesconi, Hans Gefors and Bent Sørensen.
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Sköld's music was initially very neo-classical in both form and harmony, with influences from the renaissance-, and baroque-eras, as well as the polystylism of Alfred Schnittke. Experiments with other compositional techniques, such as serialism, spectralism, and chance operations has become central in Sköld's later works. He currently takes a lot of inspiration from the music by Debussy, Ravel and Takemitsu, especially in their use of orchestral colours. Giacinto Scelsi's use of only one pitch and György Ligeti's micro-polyphony has also been a strong influence in Sköld's music.
The Spectre
for Violin and Harpsichord was written during a time of extreme isolation and is therefore fuelled by nostalgia and anxiety.
The meaning behind the piece's title is about ghostly spectres from the past that haunt us during our daily lives.
The dissonances of the harpsichord (which is tuned in mean-tone temperament) creates an atmosphere which our modern ears might experience as dark and uncomfortable.