Cecilia Damström - Orchestral Concert 

Mental disorders, also called mental illnesses, affect people in very different ways, sometimes for a short period of time and for others it is a struggle throughout their life. Altogether 970 million people around the world suffer from mental disorders, according to the World Health Organization. The most common mental disorders are depression and anxiety, which annually affect 264 million and 284 million people respectively around the world. Mental illness is nothing you can imagine before you have experienced it yourself, and even then the experience is personal, and every experience is unique and equally significant.

The piece Nixus was finished on the 10th of September (at 4 a.m.), which also happens to be “world suicide prevention day”. This coincidence feels very symbolic. Every year around 800.000 people commit suicide and the connection between mental illness and suicide is demonstrable. Despite the fact that 13% of the world population suffers from mental illness, and one out of four people are affected at some point of their life by mental or neurological disorders, it is still taboo to talk about it, and probably in part therefore many people feel very lonely with their problems.

The Latin word “nixus” can translate as effort, pressure or strain. Nixus is dedicated to anyone who suffers from mental illness in any form. In this work, I try to illustrate how thoughts jump back and forth at a rapid pace, and often form a kind of hamster wheel, a vicious circle from which it is difficult to break out. I try to describe how the thoughts often lead to very gloomy moods and anxiety, which can even become physical manifestations in the body, like palpitations and pressure in the chest.

Dagbok is my first song cycle composed to five poems from my diary (hence Dagbok which means diary in Swedish). The poems are written 2009-2011 while the songs are composed 2011-2013.

In Western classical tradition lied is a term for setting poetry to art songs. Traditionally poems that have been composed into lieder often center on pastoral themes of romantic love. I find lied, through its short and partly on point texts often acts as a mirror to the society of its time. This can also be noticed in a few aspects in Dagbok; the first three songs are about feelings after someone has “ghosted” you, a familiar term in popular culture today (when the person you are seeing stops responding to you as suddenly as if they would have died). 

The third and especially the last song “Jag vill” can be seen as a strong embodiment of the emotion rage. Rage is an emotion that all though history has mainly been “prohibited” for women to show, or if shown, it has almost always been punished by society (through ridicule and questioning). Through gender studies this phenomena has been researched to a large extent and several books have been written about the topic; how men are allowed to show rage but not sorrow while women are allowed to show sorrow but not rage. (For example: “Rage becomes her: The Power of Women’s Anger” by Soraya Chemaly, 2018.) But as we all know: feelings don’t ask for permission, and all feelings are valid feelings. I think therefore that these two “angry” songs also work as a mirror for our society today, where it slowly begins to be accepted that also women can express such emotions as rage through text and music. Also in a even more broad sense it is a mirror of our time: love and life is being described from a hostorically neglected perspective, the female perspective.

Dagbok is due to its nature a very personal piece of music which has been followed by many more very personal pieces. In the beginning (and sometimes still) it felt terrifying sharing something so personal with a whole audience. But I believe sharing personal and authentic feelings is what can make us connect as humans, to either feel and understand someone else’s experience better or maybe even to recognise your own experience and feel someone one else has been able to set it to words (and music). I believe understanding oneself and each other is the key to more compassion and more compassion is the key for a better world.

My orchestra piece “Lucrum” Op.57 is composed for the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and the piece was premiered on 3 May 2018 under the batton of Michael Bartosch. The season programme of the orchestra was themed “The seven deadly sins”, and therefore I was also asked to compose a piece inspired by one of the deadly sins. “Lucrum” is inspired by the deadly sin greed and the latin word lucrum translates in to English as profit, gain, advantage, riches and of course greed.

In this piece I have tried to express the emotions I feel that greed provokes, namely a bitterness of not having everything and always wanting to have more, even when you already have excessive amounts of everything. I feel greed can always be seen as something growing, which is also mirrored in our materialistic free market society, as well as in this piece of music.

For the Finnish first performance I  made a new version of the piece for chamber orchestra. The Finnish premiere was performed by Jyväskylä Sinfonia in concerts on the 29th and 30th of August 2018. The concerts was  conducted by the conducting class of professor Ari Rasilainen from the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg.

Time is ticking while over 65 million refugees are knocking at the door of Europe in seek of help and hope for a better life. Refugees who have lost everything, who have walked miles, who have paid everything they own for saving their own and their families’ lives. The European Union has had a hard time choosing sides. And while it is tightening the regulations for refugees, the pressured knocking at our door is growing ever stronger. A both economic and humanitarian catastrophe is starting to show its full extent.

Tundo is the latin word for “Knock” and is my description of the catastrophe of our time. I have tried to put in to music the knocking, the wars, the beautiful landscapes refugees have walked by, the rain that has poured over them, the sea and the dangerous boat ride, the screams for help, the arguing among the European Union’s elite bureaucrats, the shouts of “don’t let them in”, the grief and pain due to loss of loved ones, the sympathy we Westerners have but which only lasts as long as the refugees don’t affect our own lives in any way. All of this exists at the same time simultaneously, all of this is a part of our time, all of this will be part of our history and a burden on our conscience.

Events like one of the world’s greatest nations choosing a racist, misogynistic man for president, have shattered me and put all my idealism into question. I’m not a politician, I’m not rich nor influential, but through my music I at least try to do my part for making the world a little better place to live in. By touching other people’s hearts and telling the story of those who don’t have a voice of their own in society – the refugees.

Cecilia Damström’s music speaks with the voice of a bold and distinctive composer, while simultaneously reflecting the perspective of an engaged individual who addresses the pressing issues of our time. Her works are often rooted in tangible themes that tackle universal, ecological, or other deeply human concerns. Damström does not shy away from addressing even the most challenging or uncomfortable topics in her compositions.

The orchestral work ICE (2021), commissioned by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, was composed to celebrate Lahti’s recognition as the first Finnish city to receive the European Green Capital of Europe Award in 2021. The work was recorded under the baton of Dalia Stasevska in May 2021 and screened later that August at the Helsinki Music Centre. In September 2021, ICE was also performed for an audience of distinguished guests during the “European Green Capital Awards” in Lahti. Although subsequent planned performances in Lahti (January 2022) and Bamberg (May 2023) were canceled, ICE is now finally receiving its much-anticipated public premiere [with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra 28th and 29th of February 2024].

In 2022, ICE was awarded the prestigious Teosto Prize, Finland’s most significant recognition in the field of music. Remarkably, Damström became the first-ever female composer of classical contemporary music to receive the award, which has been given annually since 2003.

The inspiration for ICE lies in the melting of ice, a dire consequence of the accelerating climate crisis facing our planet. In Damström’s words: “In this piece, I attempt to express how global warming, the collapse of ecosystems, and the increasing pace of life are destroying the beautiful, ancient structures of snow and ice, while the Earth’s core fights for its survival with every heartbeat.” This dual sense of urgency is also reflected in the double meaning of the work’s title: “ice” symbolizing frozen water and the abbreviation In Case of Emergency.

The music of ICE is one of soundscapes, textures, and occasionally forceful rhythmic statements. It begins with an ascending harp phrase, which gives way to an icy, shimmering chordal texture in the divided strings. Subtle glissandi, delicate string effects, and the interplay of woodwinds enrich the soundscape, which is occasionally disrupted by distorted chorale fragments, sudden bursts of energy, and sharp cuts in texture as the piece intensifies.

Despite its frozen and ominous tone, ICE holds within it a glimmer of hope. At its climactic point—placed roughly at the golden ratio of the composition—an SOS motif emerges, played by woodwinds and trumpets in the universal code of three short, three long, and three short notes. This is the piece’s pivotal In Case of Emergency moment. From there, the music transitions into a condensed retrograde passage, gradually returning toward its opening material. The final harp phrase mirrors the beginning but descends this time, symbolizing a reversal—a journey back to a time of winters. Through this inverted dramatic structure, Damström conveys a message of hope: we still have the chance to act and reclaim the balance of nature.

Text by Kimmo Korhonen – from the Radio Symphony Orchestra program note

Every year an average Swede will buy 13 kilograms of clothes and throw away about 7.5 kilograms of clothes. About 60 percent of the clothes that are thrown away are whole and clean, but only 3.8 kilograms of textiles per person are annually collected by charity organisations. At least 0.13 kilograms of clothes per person are sold second hand. In Finland the numbers are even higher. As much as 19 kilograms of clothes are bought and 13 kilograms are thrown away annually per person.  For producing one kilogram of cotton you will need 7 000 – 29 000 litres of water and 0.3 –1 litre of oil.  To produce one kilogram of cloth generates about 10-15 kilograms of  greenhouse gases.

In recent years second hand clothes have become increasingly popular in Scandinavia, and bringing your clothes to a collection is considered a way to “have a clean conscience”. But according to a report by the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle only around 20 percent of the collected clothes can be sold in shops in Scandinavia. Around 10 percent are burnt immediately and up to 70 percent are sent further to sorting units, usually situated in the Baltic countries or Germany. At this point a small part is used for upcycling, such as fillings for car seats. But most of the clothes are sent to some of the poorest countries in the world, like for instance Mozambique. The black market of cheap bad quality clothes disrupts these countries’ own textile industry. As a large part of the clothes are of too bad quality to wear anymore, they end up in landfills.

The first movement “Wear” is about how we use different clothes for different occasions, like for instance certain clothes for christmas parties, maybe other clothes for concerts and again something else when we are going out partying with friends. The clothes might be bought second hand and be used several times, but everything at an increasing tempo.

The second movement “Toss” is the journey the clothes make together with their owner to collection containers where they are tossed in, and from where they are collected by a lorry. The third movement “Sort” is a description of collection and sorting halls. The movement is like a slow “zoom out” during which you slowly begin to realise what a large amount of “Christmas- and party clothes” there are intended to be recycled: in Finland annually around 14 million kilograms and in Sweden around 38 million kilograms, an overwhelming amount.

The fourth movement “Burn” is about what happens to at least 80 percent of all textile waste: it is burned with mixed waste. In best case the waste burning can be used for generating new energy, but it is not a sustainable way to use resources.

The last movement “Flow” is about what we call “Greenwashing”, in other words marketing something as sustainable even though it actually isn’t. In an investigating article by Yle a factory plant of the Finnish firm Fortum is viewed in detail. The factory refines salts from environmentally hazardous APC ashes (APC = Air Pollution Control) from incineration waste. Then these salts are rinsed out together with the wastewater of the process, straight into the Baltic Sea, as there is “lack of proof that it would be harmful for the environment”. The regulations which state that ashes from incineration waste should not be used unrefined, due to environmental risks, are circumvented in this way. 

Wasteland is a shout out that recycling can’t be “one option of many”, as it has to be the only viable choice for our resources to be sufficient. The responsibility for recycling shouldn’t lie solely with consumers, but should also be mandatory for producers. With this piece, I want to make people understand that if we can “afford” to consume, we must also be able to afford to take care of the waste we are creating. This must be regulated by law so that the responsibility cannot be shifted to poorer and / or corrupt countries.