Histories and Herstories Composers Part 6

Jocelyn Hagen

I was introduced to “Sofðu Unga Ástin Min” by my friend and pianist Arnhildur Valgarðsdóttir when we played together in Reykjavik last year. In pre-Christian times, before the year 1000, children from large families struggling to feed many mouths would be left outside to die in the cold. This sad yet beautiful melody may have been sung by a mother as she bade farewell to her child. If you want to know more, Arnhildur talks about this song in this radio programme, part of Linda Buckley’s award-winning “Mother’s Blood, Sister Songs” series for Athena Media.

Looking around the internet for a version of “Sofðu Unga Ástin Min” I came across a beautiful version by Jocelyn Hagen, which you can hear here.

This was commissioned by the North Dakota State University Challey School of Music for the NDSU Concert Choir and their conductor, Dr. Jo Ann Miller, who has Icelandic roots. I’m very grateful to Jocelyn for allowing me to arrange this version of “Sofðu Unga” for string quartet.

Jocelyn Hagen composes music that has been described as “simply magical” (Fanfare Magazine) and “dramatic and deeply moving” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis/St. Paul). She is a pioneer in the field of composition, pushing the expectations of musicians and audiences with large-scale multimedia works, electro-acoustic music, dance, opera, and publishing. Her first forays into composition were via songwriting, still very evident in her work. Most of her compositions are for the voice: solo, chamber and choral. Her melodic music is rhythmically driven and texturally complex, rich in colour and deeply heartfelt.

In 2019, choirs and orchestras across the country are premiering her multimedia symphony The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci that includes video projections created by a team of visual artists, highlighting da Vinci’s spectacular drawings, inventions, and texts. Hagen describes her process of composing for choir, orchestra and film simultaneously in a Tedx Talk given at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, now available on YouTube. Her dance opera collaboration with choreographer Penelope Freeh, Test Pilot, received the 2017 American Prize in the musical theatre/opera division as well as a Sage Award for “Outstanding Design.” The panel declared the work “a tour de force of originality.”

 In 2013 Hagen released an EP entitled MASHUP, in which she performs Debussy’s “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” while singing Ed Sheeran’s “The A Team.” She is also one half of the band Nation, an a cappella duo with composer/performer Timothy C. Takach, and together they perform and serve as clinicians for choirs from all over the world.

Hagen’s commissions include Conspirare, the Minnesota Opera, the Minnesota Orchestra, the American Choral Directors Associations of Minnesota, Georgia, Connecticut and Texas, the North Dakota Music Teachers Association, Cantus, the Boston Brass, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the St. Olaf Band, among many others. Her work is independently published through JH Music, as well as through Graphite Publishing, G. Schirmer, Fred Bock Music Publishing, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and Boosey and Hawkes.

You can find out much more about Jocelyn and her music here. If you would like to buy a copy of her wonderfully haunting choral version of “Sofðu Unga”, you can purchase it from this page. For the string quartet version, contact me directly or get in touch with Jocelyn from her website.