A Room of One's Own

A Room of One's Own

Længst væk fra mig

A work for upper voices commissioned by the Danish National Girls' Choir setting the composer's own text. It was premiered in March 2020 directed by Phillip Faber. A work for upper voices commissioned by the Danish National Girls' Choir setting the composer's own text. It was premiered in March 2020 directed by Phillip Faber.

Richard Boone: Charming and Disarming

Memories of the US born singer and trombone player who had a major influence on the Jazz scene in Denmark over the last 30 years. The book draws a portrait of this popular and inspiring musician through his own and others writings.

Poul Ruders: Dramaphonia (Score)

'Dramaphonia' for piano solo and 11 instruments forms the first part of a trilogy of solo-concertos, the remaining two being one for percussion and smaller symphony orchestra ('Monodrama') and the last ('Polydrama') for violoncello and full orchestra. All three pieces are in one movement each and may be performed together, thus presenting a vast "concerto grosso" of the duration of one hour and a half. Each concerto, however, stands by itself, offering its own story: having employed the word "drama" in all three pieces, I naturally want to imply that something is "going on", a series of hidden events created by each listener?s own "inner theatre" which enables him to stage his own, personal associations, and in the case of 'Dramaphonia', the compositorical tension alters between action and frozen panoramas. In the percussion concerto, the rhythmical progression is being constantly intensified, whereas the metric proportions of Dramaphonia tighten and loosen, like a magnifying glass being wielded in and out of focus. 'Dramaphonia' is commissioned and dedicated to LONTANO and Poul Rosenbaum.

Intonation/Detonation

Intonation/Détonation (A gold- and silver waltz with snaps of champagne)For Arne Nordheim on his 70 years birthday (20 June 2001). Composed at the request from the Norwegian Radio - and from my own desire for large orchestra - but witt a duration of only approx. thirty seconds.

Bent Lylloff: 24 Duets For Percussion

There are very few duets written for percussion, especially duets written with teaching in view. These short pieces from Bent Lylloff have been used with his own pupils, and will certainly benefit other percussion players, either as a teacher and pupil duet, or a duet for two students.

Hellstenius: Remains

Remains was composed by Henrik Hellstenius in 2013. "Hellstenius is a composer who writes music for his own times, with all the hunger for knowledge of a researcher, the playfulness of a child, and a performer?s instinct for the sensuous in every strike, stroke and breath."Eli Berge.

Leif Thomsen: Unendlicher Empfang

This is a fundamental introduction to Per Nørgård's music and thinking until Symphony no. 6. The writer keeps his own valutations in the background but his engagement in the project is clear and he describes the music in simple metaphors and subjective experiences, everything with elegance which can best be characterized as taste

Poul Ruders: Romances (Score and Parts)

Programnote According to tradition, a mid- or late-19th century instrumental Romance - or Romanza - is a shortish composition of predominantly melodic nature, with a slight leaning toward the sentimental.In several European languages, such as German, French, and Danish, the word for navel, i.e., an unfolding drama in writing, is Roman, and although there's nothing literary about my Six Romances for viola and piano, each piece tells its own story open to individual inner interpretation. Portal forms the opening chapter, so to speak, paving the way for the second movement, named Even Song. Maybe it's just a simple tune heard at sunset, perhaps the melody is carried from far away, over the hills from inside the village church...Titles such as, Ballad, and Dirge (song of mourning) immediately reveal the nature and mood of the music to come, where-as the concluding piece Duet is slightly more 'mysterious.'In a classic duet the two instruments in question, or more likely voices complement each other benevolently. In the present case, however, the viola and the piano both stand firm, protection their own turf - and - 'the twain shall never meet!'The piece is very short indeed, it just stops, leaving the listener to finish the 'story' in his or her own imagination. A true open ending. Poul Ruders

Carl Nielsen: Quartet For Strings No.3 In E Flat Op.14

The principal post-Romantic Danish composer, Carl Nielsen, was born in 1865, the son of a painter and village musician. Childhood experience as an amateur performer led to subsidised study at the Copenhagen Conservatory and a long career during which he developed his own personal style of composition, in particular in a series of important symphonies. This string quartet includes score and parts.

Magnus Lindberg: Kinetics (Score)

This work was written with a mix between computer technology and the more traditional orchestra, the piece was composed in such a way that it would support it's own acoustics. Lindberg worked with amplification of instruments and electronically transformed sounds thus producing greater possibilities to abandon acoustic limits. In order for the piece to be supported by it's own acoustics, the piece had to be written in terms of foreground and background harmony, every foreground chord would always have it's background, a shadow existing without it's main chord.Another theme to the piece is that of textural motion as rapid gestures and motions are a big part of the composer's interest. Static repitions seemed to limit the piece however so they were compensated for on another level, so with a repetitive rhythmic pattern, the harmonic material changes rapidly or when a chain of chords is static the rhythmic and timbral qualities vary frequently. Work for Orchestra commissioned by the Finnish Broadcasting Company.

3 Miniaturer Part.&stem.Kopi

Per Nørgård THREE MINIATURES for string quartet (string quartet no. 3)The Three Miniatures for string quartet (composed 1959) has a consequent experimental structure that dictates every note in the three extremely short movements. Each member of the quartet thus plays his own little melody a certain (but different) number of times so that the brand new soundscopes constantly appear in spite of the unchanging parts, due to their different length. Per Nørgård

Poul Ruders: Polydrama (Cello Concerto No.1)- Score

Poul Ruders Polydrama (Manyfold Event) for cello and orchestra, is the last part of a drama trilogy otherwise consisting of Dramaphonia" for piano and 11 instruments and Monodrama for percussion and 32 instruments. In this abstract drama, the individual listener is left entirely to his own associations. The composer has compared polydrama with the gradual defoliation of a big tree: the vigorously growing organism is attacked by a swarm of locusts until, finally, nothing remains but bare branches in a landscape of long shadows; a solitary, singing bird remains, however, like a streak of hope in an increasingly dark and pessimistic universe.

Tale Of Lead And Light : String Quartet Version - Parts)

The composer writes: "The backdrop for this commission was to complement music by the great Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven’s scores for string quartet are cornucopias of techniques and musicality. They were certainly not meant for pure entertainment. Ending up with Beethoven’s quartet Op. 59 No. 1 as a reference for this piece, I even used elements from this quartet in my own composition. Beethoven’s position as a free artist has been of great importance to all following composers. This is of equal inspiration as his music. As a free artist, one has to reflect upon our own time, and not be afraid of allowing reality affect our work. When I was in the middle of writingthis piece something horrible happened in my neighbourhood. A bomb exploded in Oslo and a killer shot teenagers on an island summer camp. My nation’s reputation as a peaceful country to live in was drastically and forever changed. It was hard to compose. Papers and online media were soon filled with horrible pictures from the events. The lead-coloured skies being a recurring sight. The ambiguity in the title reflects both hope and dread. Beethoven’s light shines through, strong and full of life! The piece was commissioned by the Engegård Quartet in 2011 and appears the recording String Quartets vol IV: Schubert-Ratkje-Britten-Haydn. A later piece was composed for string orchestra: 'Tale of Lead and Frozen Light' (2014)". The composer writes: "The backdrop for this commission was to complement music by the great Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven’s scores for string quartet are cornucopias of techniques and musicality. They were certainly not meant for pure entertainment. Ending up with Beethoven’s quartet Op. 59 No. 1 as a reference for this piece, I even used elements from this quartet in my own composition. Beethoven’s position as a free artist has been of great importance to all following composers. This is of equal inspiration as his music. As a free artist, one has to reflect upon our own time, and not be afraid of allowing reality affect our work. When I was in the middle of writingthis piece something horrible happened in my neighbourhood. A bomb exploded in Oslo and a killer shot teenagers on an island summer camp. My nation’s reputation as a peaceful country to live in was drastically and forever changed. It was hard to compose. Papers and online media were soon filled with horrible pictures from the events. The lead-coloured skies being a recurring sight. The ambiguity in the title reflects both hope and dread. Beethoven’s light shines through, strong and full of life! The piece was commissioned by the Engegård Quartet in 2011 and appears the recording String Quartets vol IV: Schubert-Ratkje-Britten-Haydn. A later piece was composed for string orchestra: 'Tale of Lead and Frozen Light' (2014)".

Beggar's Palace

'Beggars' Palace' is the name of a fictive railway station, a metaphor that can evoke many associations, for example as a place from which one journeys on, where one is forced to stay for a short or long period, or a place where one simply gets stuck and must watch others journey on. The fictive station has something worn-out and shabby about it, but the worn and shabby can have its own poetry and beauty. At the end the music stands still for a minute or two, while a voice talks about Beggars' Palace. 'Beggars' Palace' was composed in January 2000 for the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra. Anders Nordentoft

Jersild Tre Romantiske Korsange Satb

Jørgen Jersild’s music is always marked by a timbral refinement with a certain inspiration from Cesar Franck and a persistently seamless musical timing. His early works sit in the intersection between the Danish and French traditions, whose inspirations he later synthesized into his own personal style, as can be heard in Three Romantic Songs for Chorus , composed in 1971. Jørgen Jersild (1913-2004) was a Danish composer and pedagogue. He studied in Paris and at the University of Copenhagen, before becoming a teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Music for over thirty years. During this time he wrote several successful textbooks on solfege and musical theory.

Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: Body And Soul (Score)

Programme Note Posed some questions I can say: Each of us have our own reasons for finding a work successful - and each work has its own reasons for being successful, very different reasons and reasons of a different kind. Speaking for myself I have opposing and often conflicting views and wishes. Automatically (!) I am attracted by music of a strict and severe nature, but also by the unforseen, the provocative and the devil-may-dare. And a burst of laughter to and fro shall be welcomed - as a relief. Since the 1960's I have tried to condense the musical material as much as possible, to make it as simple as possible. Complexity arises when the simple "things" meet. "Things" indicate that the motives of the music often can be experienced as objects.As the late Poul Nielsen put it, speaking of my piece, REPRISER from 1965: 'there is sound as sound - and sound as expression" . and there is "a voice that speaks and a voice that is silent' The present new piece of mine, Body and Soul, is thus entitled because the brief first movement has a direct physical approach, while the second movement has a more intimate spiritual and softer touch. Don Juan, the Master of The Senses, can be supposed to have embodied both sides in his nature. And what is Don Juan doing here? - the second movement gives the answer - by and by. Pelle Gudmundsen- Holmgreen

Magnus Lindberg: Twine

This work shows the composer's need to move in another musical direction away from the Urban Jungle style he had sought in previous works such as Kraft and UR. The piece is based upon the composer's interest in the musical confrontation between serial and spectral thinking as if it is the conflict between different views of organisation that create interesting and unforseen constellations of musical material.Twine took over a year and a half to complete, a fairly long time for a piece which is only 7 minutes long. Although wonderful in its own right, Lindberg now considers it a study for his orchestral piece Kinetics which was written between 1988-89. Arranged for Solo Piano.

Kaija Saariaho: Petals

This composition was written quickly in a matter of days, however the composer describes the longer process of writing the piece as unconscious preparation. There are opposite elements on display within the piece, fragile coloristic passages give birth to energetic events with clear rhythmic and melodic charachter.More sharpely focused figures pass through different transformations then finally merge back to less dynamic but no less intensive filigration. In bringing these compositional elements together and by forcing opposite modes of expression, the composer has aimed to force the listener to stretch their own sensibility. Work for Cello and Electronics which was premiered by Anssi Karttunen at the Musica Nova Festival, Bremen in May 1988.

Carl Nielsen: Humoresque-Bagatelles Op.11 (Critical Edition)

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) was a Danish musician, often seen as his country’s greatest composer, who now occupies a distinguished platform in the national and cultural heritage of his native Denmark. The Carl Nielsen Edition is an independent project which aims to publish all of his finished works, in the version last approved by the composer. The Humoresque-Bagatelles (Op.11) is a collection of six pieces for solo Piano. They were written in 1897, presumably with his own children in mind, and they depict various scenes of children playing. They form an entertaining, light-hearted set of works, and this new edition will allow them to be enjoyed by many more generations to come.

Voyages Extraordinaires

A work for orchestra commissioned by Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. The composer writes "I have borrowed the title 'Voyages extraordinaires' from the writer Jules Verne and his famous novel series depicting fantastic or in reality impossible journeys. The title seemed fitting as my work is intended as fantastical musical voyages on which the listener encounters new worlds of sound through recurring orchestral transformations. I see the work somewhat as a tribute to how art has the abilities to transcend the limits of life. Some years ago I composed a horn trio, 'Diagonal Musik' (2017), inspired by the Swedish artist Olle Baertling. Baertling’s paintings consist of large, brighttriangular shapes, and although the lines gradually approach one another, the intersecting point is often placed outside the frame. Consequently, the spectator will try to complete the angle in their own head. In my horn trio, I wanted to transfer this to music: the lines that gradually approach each other but rarely meet, except perhaps in the listener’s head. In 'Voyage Extraordinaires' I have tried to develop these techniques even further, this time for orchestral forces, and combine them with the magical transformations, an important structural element of the piece. The fantastic journeys also refer to travels in our own imagination: what we believe and picture in our mind. The sudden musical transformations that occur are also reminiscent of dream logic and the dreamscape itself. Here it is possible to wander in and out through worlds in a way that feels consistent within the framework of the dream." A work for orchestra commissioned by Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. The composer writes "I have borrowed the title 'Voyages extraordinaires' from the writer Jules Verne and his famous novel series depicting fantastic or in reality impossible journeys. The title seemed fitting as my work is intended as fantastical musical voyages on which the listener encounters new worlds of sound through recurring orchestral transformations. I see the work somewhat as a tribute to how art has the abilities to transcend the limits of life. Some years ago I composed a horn trio, 'Diagonal Musik' (2017), inspired by the Swedish artist Olle Baertling. Baertling’s paintings consist of large, brighttriangular shapes, and although the lines gradually approach one another, the intersecting point is often placed outside the frame. Consequently, the spectator will try to complete the angle in their own head. In my horn trio, I wanted to transfer this to music: the lines that gradually approach each other but rarely meet, except perhaps in the listener’s head. In 'Voyage Extraordinaires' I have tried to develop these techniques even further, this time for orchestral forces, and combine them with the magical transformations, an important structural element of the piece. The fantastic journeys also refer to travels in our own imagination: what we believe and picture in our mind. The sudden musical transformations that occur are also reminiscent of dream logic and the dreamscape itself. Here it is possible to wander in and out through worlds in a way that feels consistent within the framework of the dream."

Concertino

?Concertino for chamber ensemble? was composed in May 1999 for the Esbjerg Ensemble to whom it is also dedicated. The two groups of the ensemble - winds and strings - meet each other in a concertating play along with and against each other - with the drums in the middle to control the battle. The piece - which is in one movement - is subject to the unity of time in the sense that it is urged by a rhythmic motor, which is ticking from beginning to end. A pulse and a tempo. The composition borrows traits of the classic sonata form - and it is own way it tries to - during the continuous conversation of the instruments - to blow life, drama and pleasure in a rhythmic structure - and get the music moving.A.K.

Schubert Lounge

Schubert Lounge for Soprano, 2 Baritones and Ensemble was commissioned by Oslo Sinfonietta. Franz Schubert was a singer/songwriter, says Eivind Buene . A Schubertiade as a role model, the composer - who himself grew up with pop music - imagined Schubert in the singer/songwriter pose of the 70s: with a Fender Rhodes and the voice of a pop singer. So, he staged his first Schubert Lounges for his friends in Oslo. Inspired by one of these house concerts, baritone Halvor Mellen suggested Buene that they could work together as singers.Eivind Buene is interested in this friction between different aesthetics and different systems of thought. In the further developed Schubert Lounge,three different musical styles meet: Buene's own recontextualized version of Schubert songs, Halvor Mellen's interpretation of Buene's music composed for his voice based on fragments from Schubert's diary, and Tora Augestad's very personal interpretation of Schubert songs. Schubert Lounge for Soprano, 2 Baritones and Ensemble was commissioned by Oslo Sinfonietta. Franz Schubert was a singer/songwriter, says Eivind Buene . A Schubertiade as a role model, the composer - who himself grew up with pop music - imagined Schubert in the singer/songwriter pose of the 70s: with a Fender Rhodes and the voice of a pop singer. So, he staged his first Schubert Lounges for his friends in Oslo. Inspired by one of these house concerts, baritone Halvor Mellen suggested Buene that they could work together as singers.Eivind Buene is interested in this friction between different aesthetics and different systems of thought. In the further developed Schubert Lounge,three different musical styles meet: Buene's own recontextualized version of Schubert songs, Halvor Mellen's interpretation of Buene's music composed for his voice based on fragments from Schubert's diary, and Tora Augestad's very personal interpretation of Schubert songs.

Songs Of The Ice (JÄÄN LAULUJA)

Songs of the Ice is an orchestral work about ice. In the Arctic region, the ice breathes with the seasons, swelling in winter and shrinking in summer. Its age-old movement sings a song of its own: slowly surging, unrelenting andcovering all beneath it. It tinkles and rumbles, squeaks and laments as our ever-warmer climate breaks Nature’s time-honoured laws, forcing the ice to give way. When I composed the piece, I was expecting our second child, due tobe born in the heart of winter when the bitter cold strengthens the ice, making it powerful and solid again, and I was vividly reminded of the time after our first-born. Songs of the Ice also describes the emptiness and reclosingprocess that begins in a woman’s body when she parts company with the life inside her in giving birth.