This CD contains music from Gudruns 4th Song, a music drama project that was first performed in a dry dock in Copenhagen in 1996. It was originally a production of OperaNord, a new company established by the danish set designer Luise Beck. The piece was created by Lucy Bailey (director), Louise Beck (idea and set design), Tarja Ervasti (lighting), Peter Laugesen (writer) and the composer Tómasson.

The music:
Gudrun's Fourth Song is inspired by and based on poems of the old Icelandic Edda, from which the entire libretto is derived. Nonetheless, this libretto is a new text in the same way that a collage is a new work of art, because it combines into a single whole related but disparate fragments from independent poems. The piece got fantastic reviews from the Danish press and was performed 24 times during the summer of 1996. Since then it has been performed by CAPUT in concert version in Reykjavik.

The performers:
The singers are: Berit Mæland, Merete Sveistrup, Ulla Kudsk Jensen, Isabel Piganiol, Rudi Sisseck, Sverrir Guðjónsson, Herdís A. Jónasdóttir, Þórunn A. Kristjánsdóttir and Fóstbræður Malechoir. The CAPUT players on this CD are: Kolbeinn Bjarnasson flute, Eydís Franzdóttir oboe, Guðni Franzson clarinet, Brjánn Ingason bassoon, Eiríkur Örn Pálsson trumpet, Sigurður Þorbergsson trombone, Steef van Oosterhout and Eggert Pállson percussion, Elísbet Waage harp, Sigrún Eðvaldsdóttir and Sigurlaug Eðvaldsdóttir violins, Guðmundur Kristmundsson viola, Bryndís Halla Gylfadóttir and Hrafnkell Orri Egilsson cellos and Jóhannes Georgsson double bass.

The composer:
Haukur Tómasson (Iceland 1960) received his masters degree from the University of California, San Diego. Besides a large body of chamber music, Tómasson´s work includes six orchestral pieces, three concertos and the opera Gudruns 4th Song. His compositions Spírall and Concerto for Violin and Chamber Ensemble were nominated for the Nordic Council´s Music Prize in 1996 and 2000 respectively, and his orchestral piece Strati won the Icelandic National Broadcasting System Music Prize in 1993. Other prizes include the 1996 Bröste Optimistic Prize and the 1998 Icelandic Music Award for Gudrun´s 4th Song. His composition Saga (Fabella) for ensemble won the State Radio's 70th anniversary competition in 2000.