MASS OF GRAFFITI - by B. Morten Christophersen w/TSO and choir

The closing concert for Olavsfest 2026 will be a premiere of the powerful work MASS OF GRAFFITI by B. Morten Christophersen!

Declarations of love. Erotic messages. Prayers. Names carved into stone. In the Middle Ages, people wrote much of the same things on church walls that we write on screens today. Now composer B. Morten Christophersen has turned these voices into a large work for orchestra, choir and organ that will be premiered in Nidaros Cathedral.

CONTRIBUTORS:
Conductor: Ingar Bergby
Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera
Trondheim Vocal Ensemble conducted by Frank Havrøy
Oslo Cathedral Choir conducted by Oddgeir Kjetilstad
Nidaros Cathedral Choir conducted by Karen Haugom Olsen
Nidaros Cathedral Girls' Choir, conducted by Johanne Bjørkhaug
Organist: Petra Bjørkhaug

– I started with Nidaros Cathedral, St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. In addition, there are texts from Norwegian stave churches, English village churches and several others, says composer B. Morten Cristophersen.

The composer, who earlier this year won the Spellemann Prize as "composer of the year", has spent the last two years working on the commissioned work "Mass of Graffiti", which will be premiered during St. Olav's Festival on August 3 by a total of 150 musicians, divided between the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Vocal Ensemble, Nidaros Cathedral Girls' Choir, Nidaros Cathedral Choir, Oslo Cathedral Choir and organist Petra Bjørkhaug.

He has collected and selected authentic graffiti and epitaphs from twenty medieval churches around Europe and put them together to form the work's libretto. But what did people in the Middle Ages carve into stone and wood in churches? According to Christophersen, a lot of it is in prayers and names, people liked to write their signatures back then too.
– At the same time, there is a lot of other spice. There is both love, eroticism and curses. Many puns and riddles. But also many cries for help, we must be aware that society at that time was much harder to live in than in the one we have now.

The result is many different moods: play, dance, seriousness, funerals, declarations of love and teasing.

– In a way, I have tried to include all aspects of life in the work and represent it musically, says Cristophersen, who explains that all the inscriptions are sung by the many choirs, in different languages.

He describes the music as distinctly melodic, with both grand highlights and quiet, delicate parts. Simple and complex at the same time.

– For me as a composer, it is incredibly wonderful and exciting to be allowed to do such a large work as this, with so many talented musicians in Nidaros Cathedral itself. I really have to pinch myself. This work is something I have lived for and with for a couple of years, so it is fantastic that it is now coming to life.