Niels Rønsholdt · Photo Kåre Viemose
On 16 June, the nominees for the Nordic Council Music Prize 2020 were announced. Among the nominees is Niels Rønsholdt with the piece Songs of Doubt (2015) for choir, male solo voice, and ondes martenot.
The committee says:
“Songs of Doubt stands as a collection of strange, breathtakingly beautiful and deeply emotional musical statements about one of the fundamental conditions of being human: doubt and the states that doubt calls forth in us.”
'Songs of Doubt' album cover · Dacapo Records
Songs of Doubt (2015) is a cycle of 10 songs touching upon decisions and doubt. The piece is about looking to one's future or past every time a decision is to be made in one's lives. Niels Rønsholdt explains:
“Each moment of an important decision in our lives makes a radical distinction between before and after, between the past and the future ... The piece is shaped as a series of very simple songs that undergo the complications of decisions – of doubt and hesitation. The music seems to be looking both forward and backwards – alternating between prospect and retrospect, between expectation and memory.”
Songs of Doubt was released by Dacapo Records in 2015.