winds & brass
2021
Atmen Sie mit mir...ensemble in 3 groups & baroque organ
| Instrumentation: | baroque organ (with subsemitones) 3 players of clappers (orchestral whip/2 pieces of wood or similar) Group 1: flute/piccolo/bass flute (1 player) clarinet in Bb/bass clarinet /1 player) horn cello contrabass GROUP 2: oboe/english horn (1 player) trumpet in C/piccolo trumpet in Bb (1 player) trombone (with F-valve) tuba percussion GROUP 3 bassoon/contrabassoon (1 player) percussion 2 violins viola |
| Duration: | approximately 23 minutes |
| Commissioned by: | Swedish Radio for Gageego! |
| Premiere: | 24 october 2021 – Gothenburg with Gageego!, Ligita Sneibe-organ & Rei Munakata-conducting |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
| Program note: | Atmen – Breath. From the onset my musical thinking has always aimed at composing out the abundance of mediations between a number of extremes, or pairs of opposites (like a single breath can be seen as the opposites of inhaling / exhaling): between sound and noise, extreme depth and highest height, durations of such length that they can hardly still be perceived, and the most fleeting moments, between greatest complexity and simplest static. Between the absolute periodicity and complete aperiodicity of rhythms, between scrupulously notated groups of notes or parts of a work and their free combination for performances, between the most detailed through-composed sections of works and passages left to the intuition of the interpreter. But breathing is also rhythm: oscillation or vibration. On the one hand, this is a term from physical acoustics. On the other hand, “vibration” also has a metaphysical connotation. (In the context of a “theology of dance”, as the theologian Hugo Rahner has deciphered it from Greek and early Christian texts in his book Man At Play, it is “the free-soaring motion [ Beschwingung ] which God as creative principle has imparted to the cosmos.) If music is the interplay of proportionate vibrations which move in time and which can reoccur cyclically but always generate new forms, then it is possible to say that rhythm is the essence of music, since rhythm is the reoccurrence of a movement as time passes, is repetition of something similar, not the same. The temporal arrow intervenes in the cycle of time and stakes its claim on the new, unrepeatable. In rhythm (and breath) the periodic reoccurrence of something identical, as indicated by the beat, is modulated into aperiodicity. |
-2017-19-
fold III – part 9 of Cycle III from synthetic fragments
for oboe and ensemble or oboe solo
| Instrumentation: | oboe and ensemble (or oboe solo) |
| Duration: | approx. 3 minutes |
2018
Ein deutscher Traum – part II of Cycle I from synthetic fragments
for ensemble
| Instrumentation: | flute, clarinet (Bb and Bass), percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello |
| Premiere: | Mars 27, 2019 – Norrbotten Neo in Luleå, Sweden |
| Duration: | approximately 10 minutes |
| Commissioned by: | Norrbottensmusiken |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
| Program note: |
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Ein deutscher Traum (A German dream) takes its title from the second part of Hans-Jürgen Sybergergs mega-film “Hitler – ein Film aus Deutschland” (1977).The film has no clear plot or chronology, instead, each part explores one particular topic with the second part focusing on the pre-Nazi German cultural, spiritual and national heritage that the Nazi propaganda related to.
Rather than devise a spectacle in the past tense, by attempting to simulate unrepeatable reality or showing a photographic document, this is a sort of spectacle in the present tense – “adventures in the head”. Reality can only be grasped indirectly – seen reflected in a mirror, staged in the theater of the mind. A fiction without being a narrative and a document without claiming objectivity for it: a hybrid form without respectable parentage? But in contrast to the lavish DeMille-like décors that Wagner projected for his tetralogy, Syberberg’s film is a cheap fantasy. Ein deutscher Traum is the second part in cycle I (from the large work “synthetic fragments”) consisting of 4 parts named after Syberbergs film; I – Der Gral, II – Ein deutscher Traum, III – Das Ende eines Wintermärchens, IV – Wir Kinder der Hölle; A grail, a dream, a tale. |
2017-18
OPUS INCERTUM
for trombone and percussion
| Instrumentation: | trombone, percussion (xylophone, crotales, 3 skin instruments, prepared tenordrum, pedal bass drum, 7 metal objects, seed pod chimes, sleigh bells (or similar e.g. Kagura suzu 神楽鈴), 3 temple blocks, prepared log drum, sandblock and 3 pair of resonant instruments e.g. glass bowls, gongs, cow bells, etc.) |
| Premiere: | 15 September 2019, Gothenburg; Ivo Nilsson-trombone, Jonny Axelsson-percussion |
| Duration: | approx. 25 minutes |
| Review (DN, in Swedish): | Click to read review on DN |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
| Program note: |
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OPUS INCERTUM
The Latin title has a dual meaning: uncertain (art)work and a term for a Roman masonry where the wall consists of irregularly placed stones of different sizes and materials. The piece can be divided into 9 “blocks” of material placed next to each other. Parts of these blocks are clearly linear and through the progress of the piece gradually reveal an underlying acceleration. Others are more sublime, fragmentary, atomized, grumbling, private and uncertain: intensely focusing on details. The different blocks may also be heard as different types of time: “now-time” which is divided ad infinitum into something that has just happened and something that will happen, constantly flying in both directions simultaneously; “cyclic time”, filled with states and movements of objects; “material-bound time”, the temporality of the concrete figure. Sudden changes in structure, perspective and direction. The work as a transition between solely imperfections. |
2015-17
fluchtlinien-E
for flute, spatialised electroacoustic sound and live electronics
| Instrumentation: | flute (with B foot), electronics |
| Premiere: | 8 July 2018, Tokyo; Kazuko Ihara-flute, Denerin-electronics |
| Duration: | approx. 8 minutes |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
| Recording: | Recording available at BabelScores. Use link above! |
| Program note: |
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fluchtlinien – With this concept Deleuze and Guattari points at possible alternatives to the dominating approach. One example is how the music sends out lines of flight (fluchtlinien) when it multiplies and spreads like a diverse weed of sound. Fluchtlininen thus indicates the potential for something different to take shape, for example, the opportunity of re-thinking. Every form of life – a body, a social group, an organism or even a concept – consists of links and connections. Genes come together to form cells; cells are collected to form tribes. The term ‘human being’ is an example of such an interconnection of reason, a certain type of body (white, male), speech, and so on. But every connection also allows a fluchtlinie; there is always the potential for genetic mutation. The definition of man as rational also enables a dispute about what constitutes humanity: e.g., is it rational to put up a stock of nuclear weapons? Thus, every definition wears, every territorialisationtorium or body, the opportunities that opens up for a fluchtlinie that could turn it into something else. In fluchtlinien-E the piece gets another dimension by setting the extremely thoroughly notated flute material with a semi-improvisation part for electronics that just has to obey some simple rules. The electronic part is in many ways also an extension of the percussion part from fluchtlinien-D. |
2016-17
totenkopf
for duo
| Instrumentation: | piccolo & oboe or piccolo & Eb clarinet |
| Premiere: | (clarinet version)30 april 2017, Brussels; Katrien Gaelens, flute – Dries Tack, clarinet |
| Duration: | approx. 9 minutes |
| Commissioned by: | (clarinet version) Odysseia Ensemble |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
| Program note: |
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‘Whereas in the symbol destruction is idealized and the transfigured face of nature is fleetingly revealed in the light of redemption, in allegory the observer is confronted with the facies hippocratica (totenkopf) of history as a petrified primordial landscape. Everything about history that from the very beginning has been untimely, sorrowful, unsuccessful, is expressed in a face – or rather in a death’s head.’ (W. Benjamin)
This piece started off as what could perhaps be labelled a ‘transit piece’ in the context of the cycle einbahnstraße. This is even (somewhat naively) represented in the work by the transitions in register in the 2 instruments: the piccolo beginning with its very lowest note and always aiming upwards; and the other instrument’s opposite route. But this allegorical transit is constantly unsuccessful; other material breaking through and piling themselves up and what could be simple becomes complex and fragmented. totenkopf exists in 2 versions: for piccolo and oboe or for piccolo and Eb clarinet. |
2015-16
matheme
for double trio
| Instrumentation: | bass flute, bass clarinet, contrabass, violin, alto trombone, piano |
| Premiere: | 24 october 2016, New York |
| Duration: | approx. 14 minutes |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
| Program note: |
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The matheme indicates a relationship, where the relationship is problematic, unstable and continuously open to re-negotiation. Two separated trios playing separate music. The ambiguity of where this music can meet seems to endorse the notion of a ‘transitive’ space – a matheme, creating an invisible third space perhaps. |
Recording:
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2015-16
mirrors
for trio
| Instrumentation: | violin, alto trombone, piano |
| Duration: | approx. 13,5 minutes |
| Score: | Contact the composer |
2015-16
Meaning of No Meaning
for trio
| Instrumentation: | bass flute, bass clarinet, contrabass |
| Premiere: | 9 october 2013, Brussels – Katrien Gaelens, Dries Tack, Jens Similox-Tohon |
| Duration: | approx. 13,5 minutes |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
| Program note: |
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On a pure musical level this music is about contrasts. Two ‘themes’; one melodic, looping restatements, obstacles and ornamented planes, tentative lattices of simultaneity, networks forming and diffusing with a fine tread running between the instruments; the other like a broken machine, jolting and splattering. But also ‘themes’ against ‘no-theme’, or development against ‘staticness’ and so on… (Meaning against No Meaning). Maybe what I am after with this music is what’s between these contrasts, leaving the music for itself, “being by itself”. |
-2016-
Beyond the Quintessential Quincunx
| Instrumentation: | bass clarinet, violin, acoustic guitar, sound objects |
| Premiere: | 31 Mars 2016, Århus; Curious Chamber Players (Dries Tack, Karin Hellqvist, Frederik Munk Larsen, Rei Munakata) |
| Duration: | approximately 6 minutes |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
Recording:
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-2015-
monade (diskontinuierliche Endlichkeit)
for trio
| Instrumentation: | clarinet in A, cello, piano |
| Premiere: | 10 january 2016, Paris; Ensemble Aleph (Dominique Clément, Christophe Roy, Sylvie Drouin) |
| Duration: | approx. 10 minutes |
| Commissioned by: | Ensemble Aleph |
| Score: | Contact the composer |
| Program note: |
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Monad (from Greek μονάς monas, “unit” in turn from μόνος monos, “alone”)
The monad, the word and the idea, belongs to the western philosophical tradition and has been used by various authors, most famously by Leibniz that designates the monad as metaphysical point (without extension) in which the entire universe is reflected. Monads are manifest, they are everywhere, and there is no extension without monads. They are, then, the plenum, that is to say, the condition of an infinitely dense universe, but nevertheless they are unextended. However, this doesn’t mean that they lack of any function (as far as they project and reflect force), matter (since they come with it) or that they are extended (considering that they don’t interact with anything in the world). The ‘intensive infinity’ within the monad is in excess of any concept. Monadic fullness is dizzying, ‘confused.’ The infinity within the monad is infinitely analyzable, which means that it cannot be captured by a finite consciousness, but is lost for intentionality. Nonetheless, this loss is not an abstract negation of knowledge, since the monad has all the complex determinacy of an intensive gathering of relations. The ‘pregnant’ fullness of the monad intends no mythic re-enchantment of nature. On the contrary, it definitively secularizes temporality, and shows how the modern notion of progress reintroduces the Christian via recta into the representation of time. monade (diskontinuierliche Endlichkeit) – Oscillation measures the failure of a limit to exist. |
Recording:
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-2015-
fluchtlinien-D
for flute and percussion
| Instrumentation: | flute (with B foot), percussion |
| Premiere: | 26 February 2016, Barcelona; Duo Arà (A. Rombolá, N. Andorrà) |
| Duration: | approx. 8 minutes |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
| Program note: |
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fluchtlinien-D is fluchtlinien with a structured improvised percussion part.
fluchtlinien – With this concept Deleuze and Guattari points at possible alternatives to the dominating approach. One example is how the music sends out lines of flight (fluchtlinien) when it multiplies and spreads like a diverse weed of sound. Fluchtlininen thus indicates the potential for something different to take shape, for example, the opportunity of re-thinking. |
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-2015-
fluchtlinien
for flute
| Instrumentation: | flute (with B foot) |
| Premiere: | 23 August 2015, Tokyo Opera City, Tokyo (Japan); Kazuko Ihara |
| Duration: | approx. 8 minutes |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
| Program note: |
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With this concept Deleuze and Guattari points at possible alternatives to the dominating approach. One example is how the music sends out lines of flight (fluchtlinien) when it multiplies and spreads like a diverse weed of sound. Fluchtlininen thus indicates the potential for something different to take shape, for example, the opportunity of re-thinking. Every form of life – a body, a social group, an organism or even a concept – consists of links and connections. Genes come together to form cells; cells are collected to form tribes. The term ‘human being’ is an example of such an interconnection of reason, a certain type of body (white, male), speech, and so on. But every connection also allows a fluchtlinie; there is always the potential for genetic mutation. The definition of man as rational also enables a dispute about what constitutes humanity: e.g., is it rational to put up a stock of nuclear weapons? Thus, every definition wears, every territorialisationtorium or body, the opportunities that opens up for a fluchtlinie that could turn it into something else. |
-2015-
verzeitlichung
for ensemble
| Instrumentation: | clarinet (Bb/bass), piano, violin, viola, cello |
| Premiere: | 23 April 2015, Fabra i Coats, Barcelona (Spain); Ensemble Recherche |
| Duration: | approx. 11 minutes |
| Commissioned by: | Mixtur Festival for Ensemble Recherche |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
| Program note: |
| Perhaps it is first in the interpretation process that an artwork unfolds to what it is interpreted as. Interpretandum is thus not something instantly given but grows from esthetic experience and critical reflection – it is both the result of and the object of the study. Also in a temporal respect, mediation between production and interpretation is crucial: the artwork is produced not in its contemporary history (the past), but its time (the present) in the artwork. This temporalization (verzeitlichung) of the artwork during the process of composition transforms its interior into a “micro eon”. The interpretation crystallizes the work to a structure. |
Recording:
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2014
Rhizom
for ensemble
| Instrumentation: | flute (C/alto/piccolo), soprano saxophone, percussion, piano, cello |
| Premiere: | 30 November 2014, La Caja, Vigo (Spain); Vertixe Sonora Ensemble |
| Duration: | approx. 15 minutes |
| Commissioned by: | Vertixe Sonora Ensemble |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
| Program note: |
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“A rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo. The tree is filiation, but the rhizome is alliance, uniquely alliance. The tree imposes the verb “to be,” but the fabric of the rhizome is the conjunction, “and. . . and.. . and. . .” So far Deleuze. Subterranean passages of thought: that is what Deleuze and Guttari call a RHIZOME. It tests the intelligent capacity for finding beginnings. A labyrinth without beginning or end: “A non-hierarchic structure of concepts that propagates in all directions and invites to multiplicity.“ When I a few years ago read their book “A Thousand Plateaus” (“Mille plateaux”) I did it enthusiastically even though I may not have completely understood all of the ideas (some are even still quite difficult to understand). But at least some thought images have had a lasting impression. When I started this work I came to think about how their philosophical concept “Rhizome” has gradually become a way for me to think about structures in musical composition (form) and how these structures can communicate itself to listeners. Rhizom is based on a “predefined book” of rhythmical structures, harmonic progressions and instrumental combinations. In order to try to adhere to the conception of Rhizome it is composed in a non-linear fashion. |
Recording of the premiere with Vertixe Sonora Ensemble
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2014
Das Ende eines Wintermärchens – part III of Cycle I from synthetic fragments
for ensemble
| Instrumentation: | Bb clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, ‘cello, contrabass |
| Premiere: | April 13, 2014 – Ensemble Aleph in Fontevraud Abbey, France |
| Duration: | 6 minutes |
| Commissioned by: | Ensemble Aleph |
| Score: | Buy score at BabelScores! |
Recording by Ensemble Aleph
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| Program note: |
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Das Ende eines Wintermärchens (The End of a Winter’s Tale) takes its title from the third part of Hans-Jürgen Sybergergs mega-film “ein Film aus Deutschland” (1977).The film that has no clear plot or chronology , instead, each part explores one particular topic with the third part exploring the holocaust and the ideology behind it. Rather than devise a spectacle in the past tense, by attempting to simulate unrepeatable reality or The music should however not be misinterpreted as crudely illustrative, some (more or less) musical Maybe this music could be viewed upon as “abstract storytelling”, having no real “plot” but Das Ende eines Wintermärchens is the third part in cycle I from the work “synthetic fragments” where cycle I consists of 4 parts, all named after the parts |