HAUTE DANCE (2012) for Baroque violin, tenor gamba, and theorbo
Commissioned by Chatham Baroque for their 10th Anniversary.
Grand Prize Winner of the Chatham Baroque International Composition Competition.
PART I: HAUTE DANCES
I.    Beanchaes Brawl
II.     Haut Gavotte
III.    Double Branle
IV.    Krrranto (coranto)
V.    The Queen’s Pleasure aka “The Betty Hop” (lavolta)
    
PART II: BASSE DANSE
VI.    Basse Danse: piangere infinito (or: "Dancing with Tears in my Eyes")

Recording by Chatham Baroque.

VI. Basse Danse: piangere infinito (or: "Dancing with Tears in my Eyes")

Six Memos from the Last Millennium  - 3. Conservation

Performed on a Polish-made "Aplo" type hurdy-gurdy with extended techniques by Ben Vanden Heuvel, with electronic amplification and processing

churning void - for amplified hurdy-gurdy

Oblivion Too - 4.7.23 DEMO

Black and Blue 4.11.23 DEMO

Unwinding - Second Demo 4.26.23

No Decisions - 5.10.23 DEMO

If you find a deep enough spot in the ocean, and you dive down far enough, you will see nothing but blue in every direction; if you go far down enough in a cave, and you turn off your light, black; if you go far enough into a blizzard, white.

These are three different colors of disorientation. You lose your sense of gravity, and you can't tell which way is down; you begin to get the feeling that you might never escape, that the path you took into this place has since been erased by the sheer blue or black or white. Sometimes, remembering deeply enough yields the same effect.

Samples "Summer Air" by Alistair Lindsay.

blue-out

breathing 2

Fredrik Rasten - composition, adapted guitars played with e-bows

Recorded on February 17 & 18 2021

score:

http://fredrikrasten.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Murmurations-VI-XII.pdf

Murmurations VII

All compositions by Ben Vanden Heuvel;
American contemporary classical composer
Columbia University '18 
2018 Joseph H. Bearns Prize winner in composition
photos by Ilya Kun, Jane Ackermann, Ben Vanden Heuvel