Held at TUTL record store on 17th December 2023
“EITT DÝPI AV DÝRARI TÍД is the title of one of the most popular and acclaimed songs from the NALJA release, which Kári Jacobsen and I released in 1988. I composed the song, and my father – the writer Jens Pauli Heinesen – wrote the lyrics. My father was only 21 years old when he penned the poem shortly after his girlfriend, with whom he had been in a relationship for two years and was engaged to, broke up with him to be with one of his closest friends, whom she later married. So, my father sat down to write, likely as a means of comforting himself, because the poem does not actually deal with unrequited love but instead reflects on how precious and valuable life is despite adversity. In short, the poem speaks of hope.
The song was first publicly performed in its symphonic version in a documentary by Gulla Øregaard about my father, Jens Pauli Heinesen, which aired on Faroese television in 2002 as a tribute to him on his 70th birthday. It was also Gulla who secured the funding for the recording in Prague, Czech Republic, with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of conductor Mario Klemens. I was the solo singer, and Tórshavnar Manskór (Tórshavn Men’s Choir) provided the choir under the direction of Bjarni Restorff. The late Danish film composer Søren Hyldgaard arranged the song for symphony orchestra and male choir.
Eighteen years later, in 2020, while the coronavirus pandemic was rampant and all communal life in the country came to a standstill, many musicians were forced to stay at home like everyone else. To entertain themselves and others, several of them began offering online performances – including myself. Among other songs, I performed live online with a piece I had written to another poem by my father, called Sóleyan.
I shared the live recording on social media, and I was so pleased to discover that the recording gained traction in the Faroe Islands. Within just two days, several thousand people had viewed the performance, and many commented that they were very pleased with the song.
Among them was Høgni Rasmussen, who asked me why I didn’t initiate a crowdfunding project aimed at securing funding to record the song in a professional studio. And not just to record it – why not create a symphonic version of the piece, he suggested – similar to the song “Eitt dýpi av dýrari tíð,” which had been recorded nearly 20 years earlier with a symphony orchestra?
Inspired by all these positive comments, I came up with the idea to honour my father, the author Jens Paula Heinesen, who would turn 90 two years later, on 12 November 2022. I dreamed of organising a grand tribute concert for my father on his birthday, alongside the Faroe Islands Symphony Orchestra and a choir, and also releasing several songs that I would compose to my father’s poems.
However, in order to make this happen, I needed money – a lot of money. First, though, I wanted to see if it was possible to secure funding to record just a single track – the song “Sóleyan,” the one that so many people had listened to on Facebook in a live version featuring just me and my guitar. Following advice from Høgni Rasmussen, I launched a crowdfunding project on the newly established site – hopfigging.fo.
This was the first crowdfunding project of its kind for a music project on this new crowdfunding website, so I had no idea how it would be received. Fortunately, it went very well—much better than expected. In six days, I had raised more than the amount I had applied for. And when the crowdfunding period ended, the project was 136% funded. So now it was just a matter of finding someone who could help me arrange the music for a symphony orchestra.
I found several who offered their services for such tasks, including the excellent Italian composer and arranger Enzo De Rosa, whom I contacted after hearing music he had arranged for others. I was immediately convinced he was the right person for the job. Enzo listened to the simple version of my piece “Sóleyan” and promptly expressed that he would like to help me arrange it for the symphony orchestra. It turned out he did not disappoint.
“Sóleyan” was released as a single and music video on the day my father turned 89 – 12 November 2021 – in both Faroese and English versions, recorded with the same team as “Eitt dýpi av dýrari tíð” – along with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tórshavn Male Choir – with me as the solo singer.
The piece received a very positive reception, which led Enzo to ask me if I had composed more songs for poems by my father that we could continue working on. This encouraged me to keep going, and before long, I had created four new songs for my father’s poems that Enzo began arranging for symphony orchestra.
However, we first needed to secure funding to ensure these songs could also be recorded with a symphony orchestra. So, I decided to launch another crowdfunding campaign and simply hoped that this new effort would help me reach the goal of recording the songs and – importantly – premiering them at a tribute concert in the Nordic House in Tórshavn, with the Faroese Symphony Orchestra, on my father’s 90th birthday.
Fortunately, this time it went well again. By the end of the period, I had raised 175% of the amount I had applied for. This was a tremendous help. However, it was still not enough to finance the entire project, so I also explored other avenues – grants, various public institutions, municipalities, and businesses. With this additional support and a significant portion of my own savings, I finally managed to gather enough funds.
I then began preparations for the grand tribute concert. I was incredibly happy and proud when the concert finally became a reality. The event took place in the Nordic House in Tórshavn to a full house – around 450 people – on 12 November 2022, coinciding with my father’s 90th birthday, where I could perform the six songs I had composed for his poems, alongside the Faroese Symphony Orchestra and the two choirs, Tarira and Tórshavnar Manskór – with myself as the solo singer. Enzo De Rosa travelled all the way from Montreal, Canada, where he resides, to play the grand piano for the concert. In addition to the music, there were several conversations with various people about my father and readings from his literature interspersed between the musical numbers.
After the tribute concert concluded, all the audience members stood up, and all the performers on stage received a standing ovation from the crowd. I was incredibly moved and could not have been more satisfied.
Kringvarp Føroya recorded the entire event. The following Easter, the tribute concert for Jens Pauli Heinesen was broadcasted on television in two parts.
In addition, I also recorded the four additional songs. The recordings took place in Prague, Czech Republic, with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, with assistance from the talented producer Laura Lungu, and in the Hátún hall of the Music School in Tórshavn with the choir Tarira, while I recorded my part in a private studio. Enzo also asked me to translate the lyrics into English, so that others beyond the Faroese audience could enjoy my father’s poetry. I did so—in a singable form—so that the songs could also be recorded in English.
The original plan was for the release containing all six tracks—six tracks in Faroese on side A and the same six tracks in English on side B—to be launched on the same day that the tribute concert took place, namely 12 November 2022. However, that did not happen.
The mixing proces took significantly longer than I had anticipated. So it took almost an entire year longer to get the record with the music ready. Therefore, I decided to postpone the release to my father’s 91st birthday, on 12 November 2023, but due to unexpected delays in the graphic production, the release only came out on 1 December 2023.
It is a huge relief to FINALLY have finished the work – and I am incredibly happy and proud of the release. I am so grateful to everyone who has helped me reach this goal and would like to extend a sincere and heartfelt thank you to all. No one mentioned, no one forgotten. I hope the reception of the new music will be positive.
Thank you for listening to my speech. 🙂