Live recording from the world premiere 16 February 2012 
Karin Dornbusch, clarinets 
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra 
Stefan Solyom, conductor

Winner of Christ Johnson Awards from the Royal Swedish Music Academy.

Published by Gehrmans Musikförlag AB, Stockholm
Read more info about the work at website of Benjamin Staern
www.benjaminstaern.se

Worried Souls Excerpts Live

Benjamin Staern Music Samples

Gunhild Carling

Slow and Passionated
Composed by Gunhild Carling Sep 23,  2013
Recorded on a rehearsal in Stockamöllan sunday Oct 20, 2013
Musicians: Gunhild Carling Trumpet, vocal
Max Carling(solo) tenor sax, Nanna Carling and Mattias Carlsson(solo) Alto sax, Peter Wilgotson (barytonsax)Erik Berndalen and Hans Cooling Carling tp, Singe Magnusson piano, Frans Sjöström Bass Saxophone, Roger Berg Drums, Aina Carling Banjo, Håkan Persson and Göran Abelli trombones

Lyrics
SLOW AND PASSIONATED

play a slow and passionated song
that straight goes into my heart
let the notes turn blue, like only you  do
in thé key to a magic art.

when your music sings, I fly on wings
away to imaginary land
where we walk penny lane
dancing in the rain
and you warm my cold little hand

this song may never be heard again
thé chords and melody might never fill the air
We two might never meet, and if we do, then when
will future bring us joy to share

come what may but dont forget this slow
 and passionate melody
so sweet and so sad, so moody so mad
the song forever stays with me

Slow And Passionated

How do the angels sound? This is one of millions of Ideas. The Angel orchestra consists of Choir, harp and trombone. 
Composed by Gunhild Carling on Christmas evening 2013. Recorded in Stockamöllan 13-12-26 
All instruments played by Gunhild Carling

Angels Over Paris

Music and Lyrics by Gunhild Carling
Performed by Carling Big Band


Swingin' At Columbus

Gunhild Carling Family - Han Hade Seglat För Om Masten

Words and Music: Gunhild Carling
Gunhild: Piano, drums, trumpet, trombone, vocal
Max Carling Clarinet

http://www.gunhildcarling.net/?p=4302

Lyrics:

There's Million Stars out tonight
the moon is shining bright
and shimmering diamonds in the dew.
A soft whispering breeze
is singin' through the trees
And I am going to You. Yeah!!
We'll build a lovenest of any cozy shack
Were our castle of dreams is back.
Yes, I'll hold you tight
I will be in seventh heaven
Where a milion stars are out tonight!  


A Million Stars Are Out Tonight

Since childhood I've always loved water and wants to compose series of pieces refering to ocean, sea, lakes, ponds and so forth as a point of reference.

Wave motion is a physical phenomenon that involves a field or a disturbance of a medium propagating in space. It is music that is gradually transformed as the piece goes on. It is like watching a wave that washes over one, a stunning spectacle, and that reflects like a mirror. You can also experience great rapids and streams along the course of the work.

 

From a musical perspective, I have tried to give the work shape based on a harmonic idea where things encounter one another, are reflected and create disturbances in various ways. This leads to a more developmental kind of thinking in the compositional process. Out of this one can clearly distinguish three parts that overlap. The form has a freely ternary form structure of ABA.

 

1. Rhythmic, suggestive exhortation

2. Melodic, mystical middle section

3. Chorale, when the elements above are mixed together

 

The instrumentation used are based from the classical period of Mozart and Beethoven which includes double winds, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani,percussion as glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, cymbals, gong and strings. The sounds may give you the impression of the above mentioned composers but without quoting or imitating any piece in a post-modern way sending postcards from the past.

 

Wave-Movements was composed on commission from Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie and is dedicated to the conductor Daniel Raiskin.

 

Published by Gehrmans Musikförlag AB, Stockholm

Excerpt Live from the world premiere performance at Görreshaus in Koblenz May 30th 2011
by permssion from Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie


Wave Movements - Excerpt Live World Premiere Staatsorch.Rhein.Phil./Daniel Raiskin

The title refers to crisis situations, for example in Kosovo during the years of 1998-1999. The first introductory measures express the threat of war in that region. The music is inspired by the shocking warfootage from newsbroadcasts on television and in daily newspapers. You can imagine yourself experiencing the warfare in your own country, the terror and being forced to escape. In the background underlies also folk-musical structures i.e african clave-rhythms (4:3 polyrhythm) as a connection with the crisis in the Kongo-Kinshasa region in which went on at the same time as in Kosovo.
This work was composed to the annual project called "The Composers of Tomorrow 2000"between the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of Music in Malmö. It was judged as "best orchestral work" by the musicians of the orchestra and was performed later on the Young Soloists Concert in the Concert Hall in Helsingborg.
Other important performances could be mentioned like the Young Nordic Music Festival (UNM) in Reykjavik, Iceland and Stockholm New Music 2003.
The Threat of War has been nominated by the Swedish Music Publishers Association (SMFF) Award in the category "The most significant contemporary music work of the year" in 2005.

Excerpt live from a performance with Norrköping SO and Stefan Solyom conducting on November 27th 2004
Published by Gehrmans Musikförlag AB, Stockholm.

The threat of war - Excerpt live Norrköping SO/Stefan Solyom Nov 2004

Live recording from the world premiere 16 February 2012
Karin Dornbusch, clarinets
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra
Stefan Solyom, conductor

Worried Souls 1. Introduction Excerpt

Live recording from the world premiere 16 February 2012 
Karin Dornbusch, clarinets 
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra 
Stefan Solyom, conductor

Worried Souls. 2. Rhapsody Excerpt

Worried Souls. 3. Meditation Excerpt

Benjamin Staern (b. 1978) started his musical experience with studies in cello, piano and percussion in his youth. Studies in musicology at Lund University and subsequently studied composition at the Malmö Academy of Music during 1998-2005 with Rolf Martinsson, Hans Gefors and Luca Francesconi, and made an early breakthrough, while still a student at the Malmö Academy of Music, with the symphonic work The Threat of War (1999). 

From this point on, Staern has developed a deeply personal style with an output including orchestral and chamber works, solo pieces and electroacoustic music. An interesting aspect of his work as a composer is his unusual ability to associate tones and timbres with different colours and tints. This is a variant of a phenomenon called synaesthesia which is fundamental in his perception and the creation of his music, and which is reflected in his sound world as well as in many of his work titles (Yellow Skies, Colour Wandering etc.) 

Today Staern receives commissions on a regular basis. Looking into the near future, he is commissioned to write a major work for Malmö Symphony Orchestra and song cycle for alto Anna Larsson and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. From September 2010 he is composer-in-residence with New European Ensemble for them he composed works from this collaboration such as Tranströmersånger (selected poems from the Sad Gondola - collection by Nobel-prize author and poet Tomas Tranströmer) and Bells and Waves (Chamber Symphony), winner of the SMFF Award 2011 in the category ”most important work in chamber music/smaller ensemble”.

Works by Benjamin Staern is today performed not only by all the major Swedish orchestras but also internationally by orchestras such as the MDR Sinfonieorchester, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Staern has collaborated with ensembles including New European Ensemble, Sonanza Chamber Ensemble, Ensemble Aspekte and Stockholm Chamber Brass. Soloists include Håkan Hardenberger, Anna Larsson, Johannes Möller, Karin Dornbusch, Carina Vinke, Gitta-Maria Sjöberg, Philippe Cassard and conductors Michael Christie, Daniel Raiskin, Christian Karlsen, Mats Rondin, Mika Eichenholz and Stefan Solyom.

Worried Souls 1. Introduction Excerpt

Benjamin Staern Composer