Severance (concerto for saxophone quartet and wind ensemble)

The original version of This Night is a Christmas hymn that was written for Minneapolis-based choir VocalEssence. This arrangement for band was created for Alex Kaminsky and the VanderCook College of Music Symphonic Band. The text for the choral version is a setting of the text Dies ist die Nacht, da mir erschien­en, (“This Night a Wondrous Revelation”), which was written in 1683 by Caspar Fried­rich Nach­ten­höf­er. I used an English translation of the original German poem by Anna B. Hoppe from 1922, which also serves as the text for the Christmas hymn of the same name, commonly set to the tune O Dass Ich Tau­sen Zun­gen, written by Johann B. König in 1738. I chose this text because of the beautifully vivid imagery and metaphors for light in the poetry, and because I really enjoy the simple, common rhyme and phrase structure that encouraged me to write simple, clear music.

This Night (band version)

dream of ember, dream of star (2021) [reading recording]
for band

It felt like it took a long time to write dream of ember, dream of star. I first started work on it in 2019, but as the 2020 premiere approached the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the premiere, and I stepped away from writing for a while. It was rescheduled for 2021 and then canceled again, and I found myself in the strange position of having unfinished material that I had written in what felt like a lifetime ago. Each piece I write is a snapshot of who I am and what I am feeling at that particular moment in my life, and so many things had happened in those long months that I felt different, changed. I found that I could not finish the piece I had started writing almost two years earlier. I restarted.

dream of ember, dream of star is not what I set out to write two years ago, and it comes from a place emotionally that I do not know how to adequately describe with words. There has been so much fear, so much loss, so much change, so much division, so many different challenges and experiences—for some I imagine it must seem like an entire lifetime’s worth of loss has been compressed into relatively a short time span. But this experience has also brought some things into clearer focus—a nascent hope and joy emerging from the pause—the silence—helping us to discover what is truly important. My hope is that this piece might create a space to reflect. For me, I have been drawn to a recurring image of fire and stars—the warm glow of a campfire under a cold, deep blue sky and twinkling stars—both emanating light but separated by billions of miles and many years, felt and warm and visible to me right here and now.

dream of ember, dream of star

blue dream of sky (brass choir) [2021]

blue dream of sky was originally written for David Jackson and the University of Michigan Trombone Choir. This revision and arrangement was created for Ken Heinlein and the Erie Philharmonic Brass. The title comes from a line in E.E. Cummings poem i thank You God for most this amazing day.

blue dream of sky

Sacred Geometry (2022) – 1. Ripples 

performed by the American Brass Quintet
July 21, 2022
Harris Hall, Aspen School of Music, Aspen, CO July 21, 2022

Sacred Geometry is inspired by the work of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). Gaudí is best known for creating la Basílica de la Sagrada Família, a cathedral in Barcelona, Spain, which has been under construction since 1882. Gaudí integrated symbols of his faith into every detail of the Basílica, weaving them into complex geometric forms he studied in the natural world, like hyperbolic paraboloids, hyperboloids, helicoids, and cones. He also utilized Trencadís, a form of mosaic art made by cementing together recycled shards of tile and chinaware, fashioning beautiful new things out of the broken and discarded. The inside of the cathedral mimics a forest, with tree-like columns and branches supporting hyperboloid vaults in spectacular fractals, evoking the infinite—connecting God and Creation. I think of this piece like a strange liturgy—or ritual—to meditate on this striking space, to contemplate Gaudí’s way of seeing the world, and, hopefully, to discover a similar sense of awe and wonder.

The first movement, Ripples, is quite simple––a chanted invocation in the trumpets with orchestrated reverberations evoking the large spaces inside the cathedral. There are also distant echoes of William Byrd’s setting of Ave Verum Corpus (1605) in this movement. My favorite moment of Byrd’s work is this surprising, fleeting dissonance, the result of a major chord in the upper voices against a weeping, descending minor melody in the bass, coinciding with the text Miserere––have mercy. It is bittersweet and broken.

More information: https://davidbiedenbender.com/work/sacred-geometry/

Sacred Geometry – 1. Ripples

Sacred Geometry (2022) – 2. Gaudí

performed by the American Brass Quintet
July 21, 2022
Harris Hall, Aspen School of Music, Aspen, CO July 21, 2022

Sacred Geometry is inspired by the work of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). Gaudí is best known for creating la Basílica de la Sagrada Família, a cathedral in Barcelona, Spain, which has been under construction since 1882. Gaudí integrated symbols of his faith into every detail of the Basílica, weaving them into complex geometric forms he studied in the natural world, like hyperbolic paraboloids, hyperboloids, helicoids, and cones. He also utilized Trencadís, a form of mosaic art made by cementing together recycled shards of tile and chinaware, fashioning beautiful new things out of the broken and discarded. The inside of the cathedral mimics a forest, with tree-like columns and branches supporting hyperboloid vaults in spectacular fractals, evoking the infinite—connecting God and Creation. I think of this piece like a strange liturgy—or ritual—to meditate on this striking space, to contemplate Gaudí’s way of seeing the world, and, hopefully, to discover a similar sense of awe and wonder.

The second movement, Gaudí, is playful and whimsical, even irreverent. The Latin root of Gaudí is gaudere, which means “to rejoice” or “to take pleasure in.” Gaudí threaded the seemingly fantastical aspects of our world into dream-like designs and surreal structures that seem unnaturally natural, or naturally unnatural. Imagine stopping to marvel at some small, unusual flower like Orchis italica or hearing the peculiar call of a Brown Sicklebill or a Black-throated Loon. I think of this movement as a walk through a garden of strange delights.

More information: davidbiedenbender.com/work/sacred-geometry/

Sacred Geometry – 2. Gaudí

Sacred Geometry (2022) – 3. Nautilus

performed by the American Brass Quintet
July 21, 2022
Harris Hall, Aspen School of Music, Aspen, CO July 21, 2022

Sacred Geometry is inspired by the work of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). Gaudí is best known for creating la Basílica de la Sagrada Família, a cathedral in Barcelona, Spain, which has been under construction since 1882. Gaudí integrated symbols of his faith into every detail of the Basílica, weaving them into complex geometric forms he studied in the natural world, like hyperbolic paraboloids, hyperboloids, helicoids, and cones. He also utilized Trencadís, a form of mosaic art made by cementing together recycled shards of tile and chinaware, fashioning beautiful new things out of the broken and discarded. The inside of the cathedral mimics a forest, with tree-like columns and branches supporting hyperboloid vaults in spectacular fractals, evoking the infinite—connecting God and Creation. I think of this piece like a strange liturgy—or ritual—to meditate on this striking space, to contemplate Gaudí’s way of seeing the world, and, hopefully, to discover a similar sense of awe and wonder.

A nautilus is a marine mollusk with a shell in the shape of a logarithmic spiral. As the nautilus grows, it lives in the outermost chamber of the shell, sealing off the previous chamber with a wall that prevents it from returning to its old home. As a symbol, it has many meanings and connections, but, for me, I find it to be a powerful metaphor: building anew while always leaving behind an artifact of the past—a stunningly beautiful one, in fact. The third movement, Nautilus, is built on a small, simple phrase that spins and rotates into longer and longer threads and swirling, circular harmonic progressions.

More information: davidbiedenbender.com/work/sacred-geometry/

Sacred Geometry – 3. Nautilus

Sacred Geometry (2022) – 1. Ripples

performed by the American Brass Quintet
July 21, 2022
Harris Hall, Aspen School of Music, Aspen, CO July 21, 2022

Sacred Geometry is inspired by the work of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). Gaudí is best known for creating la Basílica de la Sagrada Família, a cathedral in Barcelona, Spain, which has been under construction since 1882. Gaudí integrated symbols of his faith into every detail of the Basílica, weaving them into complex geometric forms he studied in the natural world, like hyperbolic paraboloids, hyperboloids, helicoids, and cones. He also utilized Trencadís, a form of mosaic art made by cementing together recycled shards of tile and chinaware, fashioning beautiful new things out of the broken and discarded. The inside of the cathedral mimics a forest, with tree-like columns and branches supporting hyperboloid vaults in spectacular fractals, evoking the infinite—connecting God and Creation. I think of this piece like a strange liturgy—or ritual—to meditate on this striking space, to contemplate Gaudí’s way of seeing the world, and, hopefully, to discover a similar sense of awe and wonder.

The final movement is called Helix. The helix also has many connections and connotations, appearing in everything from spiral staircases to seashells, forming the structure for the molecules from which life is built, and lying at the center of mathematical formulas that describe both infinitesimally small subatomic particles as well as the mechanics of the entire universe.

More information: davidbiedenbender.com/work/sacred-geometry/

Sacred Geometry – 4. Helix

"Dreams in the Dusk" concerto for alto saxophone and piano. 

Recording by Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, saxophone and Kathryn Goodson, piano.

Dreams In The Dusk (saxophone and piano version)

Enigma (2022)
for brass choir and organ

performed by Kevin Sedatole and the Michigan State University Brass

Enigma for brass choir and organ and was written for the dedication of the Red Cedar Organ in the Michigan State University Alumni Chapel. The Red Cedar Organ was made possible by the generosity of Ed and Wanda Eichler, and I am grateful for their vision to build this beautiful instrument on our campus.

Enigma comes from a Greek word that means “to speak in riddles,” and in this piece, the riddle—or theme—is revealed gradually. The theme comes from the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, which is one of my favorite pieces of music, and, once the theme is revealed, it is repeated cyclically with 21 variations, just like in Bach’s original. This piece is dedicated to my former teacher, José-Luis Maúrtua, a composer, theorist, conductor, and teacher at Central Michigan University, who also completed a second doctorate in orchestral conducting at Michigan State University. José-Luis was an extraordinary musician and teacher who was tirelessly dedicated to his students and to pushing them to do their best. I am forever grateful for the lessons I learned from him, and my music and my life are far better for having known him. Unfortunately, he was taken from this earth far too young—at the age of 57—by pancreatic cancer in the spring of 2022. I miss him dearly, and this music is for him.

Enigma

Extinguish Thou My Eyes (2022)
for chamber winds
transcription by David Thornton and David Biedenbender

Michigan State University Symphony Band
David Thornton, conductor
April 25, 2023  |  Wharton Center for the Performing Arts, East Lansing, MI

"Extinguish Thou My Eyes" was originally a choral setting of Rainer Maria Rilke's poem "Lösch mir die Augen aus," written for and premiered by Dale Voelker and the Washington Kantorei. This transcription for chamber winds was created by David Thornton and David Biedenbender.
________________
"Extinguish Thou My Eyes" by Rainer Maria Rilke

Extinguish Thou my eyes: I still can see Thee,
deprive my ears of sound: I still can hear Thee,
and without feet I still can come to Thee,
and without voice I still can call to Thee.

Sever my arms from me, I still will hold Thee
with all my heart as with a single hand,
arrest my heart, my brain will keep on beating,
and Should Thy fire at last my brain consume,
the flowing of my blood will carry Thee.

(Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming)

Extinguish Thou My Eyes

Before the Dawn (2023)
for band

(reading demo recording)

Before the Dawn was written to honor the teaching career of Mr. Dave Gott, who served as Director of Bands at Haslett High School in Haslett, Michigan for 19 years. It was commissioned by the Haslett High School Band Boosters. Before I started writing this piece, I visited the Haslett High School Band to ask about their experiences with Mr. Gott and to brainstorm ideas for the piece. What struck me most about their observations and memories of Mr. Gott was how he had helped so many of them do things they themselves did not think they could do, both personally and collectively—he saw potential in them that they could not yet see and helped them achieve goals they could not have even imagined.

I am also fortunate to call Dave Gott my friend. For as long as I’ve known him, he wakes up well before dawn, getting a head start on the day. For me, this time when the deep blue night sky moves toward day through hues of glorious red and orange is a time of hopefulness, joy, and optimism—it feels like anything is possible. My hope with this piece is to capture that feeling—the same optimism, hope, and inspiration that Mr. Gott brought to every student that entered his classroom—and to celebrate it through music. A simple melody rises from the distant horizon, repeating and expanding each time as more voices join. Eventually the melody gives way to unbridled energy, joy, and wonder, with soloists and sections collectively weaving their own unique variation of the melody into a colorful tapestry.

Before The Dawn

What is Written on the Leaves (2019)

for wind ensemble
performed by the Western Michigan University Wind Symphony
Scott Boerma, conductor

What is Written on the Leaves was commissioned by a consortium of conductors and ensembles led by Matthew Westgate and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Dustin Barr and California State University, Fullerton, and James Batcheller and Central Michigan University. It is dedicated with gratitude to John E. Williamson, Director of Bands at Central Michigan University from 1979 until his retirement in 2018 and in whose wind ensemble I played euphonium throughout my undergraduate studies. Mr. Williamson had a profound impact on my conception of music; he both pushed my understanding of what is possible and honed my approach to nuance, detail, and expression.

The title What is Written on the Leaves comes from a poem by my friend Robert Fanning. Robert’s poem is a beautiful reflection on letting go, and, like much of his work, seemed to be the words I needed to hear at that particular moment in my life. As I meditated on Robert’s words, the metaphor of trees seemed to me to be an apt way to describe the relationship students have with their teachers: bold, green branches and leaves sprouting from deeply rooted trunks of wisdom and experience, eventually, new seeds falling to earth and becoming new trees. The next generation of musicians may not have the chance to experience Jack Williamson’s extraordinary perspicuity on the podium, but his words and his passion will continue through the work of his students, in the same way each autumn the ephemeral leaves fall from their branches and eventually become the soil that nourishes the tree itself.

The first movement is entitled I no longer recognize my hands, which is a line from Robert’s poem. For me, John Williamson’s wind ensemble was home. I have been listening to the Central Michigan University Symphonic Wind Ensemble since the beginning of my formal music education. But you have to leave home in order to know it. Graduating from Central Michigan University and heading out into the world was when I truly began to appreciate and understand the music we had all made together. It is also when I began to understand myself and the music I eventually wanted to write. It is a strange but important feeling to realize that you have changed but to also realize that change is an important part of the process of finding yourself.

The second movement stems from a vivid dream my father had and recounted for me and the title, Coming Home, came from an article written by composer Steven Stucky. Steven’s words speak to how everyone—even the most original and innovative artists—come from somewhere. It is a beautiful reflection on how to find your own way while acknowledging the people and the places from which you come, and it has stuck with me for a long time. In many ways, this piece, this metaphor, is a way to say thank you to all of my mentors and teachers.

The last movement, And the trees clap for winter, was inspired by a conversation I had with my son, Izaak, when he was three years old. For the first time, he had noticed the leaves changing colors and falling off the trees, and, in his innocent and somewhat concerned voice, he asked me what was happening. I told him about the change of the seasons and mustered an explanation for how this cycle is all a very natural and important part of life. Izaak paused for a moment and described the movement of the trees as the “trees clapping for winter.” This final movement is a dance, at times dark and earthy and at other times ecstatic and radiant. Ultimately, it is a celebration of the past and those who have set a path before us as well as the future and the change that will come.

What Is Written On The Leaves

Red Vesper was written for Bill Ryan and the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble for their tour of the Western United States, including several National Parks. The National Parks are many things to many people, but for me, they have most often been a very special place to find silence inside of myself. A vesper is an evening prayer, a meditation and reflection at the end of the day, and I found the idea of holding vespers in the wilderness to be profound and beautiful. I chose to call it red vesper because of the deep, red glow of the setting sun on the horizon and also because of the beautiful and iconic red rock formations that occupy so many of our great National Parks, particularly Capitol Reef National Park.

This version for clarinet, violin, violoncello, and piano was written for Music from Copland House. Live performance (6/22/14) by MUSIC FROM COPLAND HOUSE
at CULTIVATE 2014.

Red Vesper

Enigma (version for band and optional organ) 2022/2024

performed by Henry Dorn and the St. Olaf Band on February 8, 2024

Enigma was originally written for brass choir and organ for the dedication of the Red Cedar Organ in the Michigan State University Alumni Chapel. This version was created for my friend Henry Dorn and the St. Olaf Band. 

Enigma comes from a Greek word that means “to speak in riddles,” and in this piece, the riddle—or theme—is revealed gradually. The theme comes from the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, which is one of my favorite pieces of music, and, once the theme is revealed, it is repeated cyclically with 21 variations, just like in Bach’s original. This piece is dedicated to my former teacher, José-Luis Maúrtua, a composer, theorist, conductor, and teacher with whom I studied at Central Michigan University. José-Luis was an extraordinary musician and teacher who was tirelessly dedicated to his students and to pushing them to do their best. I am forever grateful for the lessons I learned from him, and my music and my life are far better for having known him. Unfortunately, he was taken from this earth far too young—at the age of 57—by pancreatic cancer in the spring of 2022. I miss him dearly, and this music is for him.

Moira (2023) for two baritone saxophones
performed by SiP Duo
Jacob Nance and Natalia Warthen

The word moira comes from Greek, meaning share, fate or destiny. The piece begins with a meditation on a simple plainchant-like melody over a drone, like a strange sacred music. The melody becomes increasingly ecstatic as the drone and melody merge into one shared parallel voice, eventually returning to the tranquility of the opening.

Moira

Fireflies (2024) for trombone choir

Michigan State University Trombone Choir
Ava Ordman, conductor

Fireflies was written for my friend Ava Ordman in celebration of 22 years of service as Professor of Trombone at Michigan State University. It is based on material from my trombone concerto, Their Eyes Are Fireflies, which was also written for Ava.

Fireflies

Daybreak Crossing

for winds and percussion

performed by the Michigan State University Concert Band (Jared Staub, conducting). 

Daybreak Crossing

Live performance by Boise State University Symphonic Winds, Marcellus Brown, conductor. 

The melody heard in "Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light" was composed by Johann Schop (ca. 1590–1664) and was first known as "Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist" (Rouse thyself, my weak spirit). It was first published in Lepzig in 1641 in Johann Rist’s Himmlische Lieder (Heavenly or Celestial Songs), where the tune appeared in triple meter along with text by Rist. J.S. Bach probably found an altered version of the tune in Johann Cruger’s Praxis Pietatis Melica (1647) and subsequently harmonized it in various settings. This particular setting is from the second cantata of his Christmas Oratorio from 1737.

The original melody had a different character in its original form, as it was more closely related to Renaissance musical style. By the time Bach harmonized the tune in the 18th century, musical preferences had shifted: the rhythm of the melody was made more consistent, the tempo became slower, and the harmony and counterpoint was more complex. This setting is still sung in modern churches at Christmas and is commonly known as Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light.

My piece "Luminescence," for winds and percussion, is based on fragments of the melody "Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light."

Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light

Enigma (2024) for wind ensemble with optional organ

performed by the Michigan State University Wind Symphony, Michael Gabriel, conductor

Enigma was originally written for brass choir and organ for the dedication of the Red Cedar Organ in the Michigan State University Alumni Chapel. This version was created for my friend Henry Dorn and the St. Olaf Band. It was awarded the 2024 National Band Association William D. Revelli Memorial Prize.


Enigma comes from a Greek word that means “to speak in riddles,” and in this piece, the riddle—or theme—is revealed gradually. The theme comes from the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, which is one of my favorite pieces of music, and, once the theme is revealed, it is repeated cyclically with 21 variations, just like in Bach’s original. This piece is dedicated to my former teacher, José-Luis Maúrtua, a composer, theorist, conductor, and teacher with whom I studied at Central Michigan University. José-Luis was an extraordinary musician and teacher who was tirelessly dedicated to his students and to pushing them to do their best. I am forever grateful for the lessons I learned from him, and my music and my life are far better for having known him. Unfortunately, he was taken from this earth far too young—at the age of 57—by pancreatic cancer in the spring of 2022. I miss him dearly, and this music is for him.

For more information: https://davidbiedenbender.com/work/enigma-2/

Schism is about divisions. I wrote Schism in 2010 in the midst of the turbulent national mid-term elections, a time that, in the context of more recent political turmoil, actually seems quite tame. I was overwhelmingly frustrated by the sophomoric mud-slinging and ridiculous lies being told by many politicians and the variously allied media, but I was also somewhat amused by what was nothing short of a nationwide goat rodeo*. Much of the musical material is transcribed almost note for note from an improvisation I played on the piano and recorded in the early stages of sketching the piece. I remember being interested in combining the pointillism of Anton Webern’s music with a bluesy rock groove, so much of the piece is based on a single, simple, eighth note based, divided melodic line that jumps around the piano in very large leaps. I think of the musical affect as similar to the compound melodies in J.S. Bach’s Unaccompanied Cello Suites, where a single melodic line is perceptually transformed through large leaps into multiple voices, though, in the end, I used the ensemble to actually hold out the notes the piano could not to add color, character, and attitude to the independent voices. I also wanted to play with the notion of groove by dividing it in unusual and unexpected ways, almost like running a few of the licks and grooves through a meat grinder.

Schism was originally written for the chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound. This version for winds and percussion was commissioned by a consortium of ensembles led by Robert Carnochan and the University of Texas at Austin Wind Symphony as well as Michael Haithcock, University of Michigan; Chris Knighten, University of Arkansas; Steven D. Davis, University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music.

*A goat rodeo is a slang term for a chaotic situation, often one that involves several people, each with a different agenda/vision/perception of what’s going on; a situation that is very difficult, despite energy and efforts, in which to instill any sense or order.

Schism (for winds and percussion)

something deeply hidden (2020) for orchestra

Recording: Oberlin Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Raphael Jimenez

something deeply hidden was commissioned by and written for Thomas Heuser and the San Juan Symphony with the support of The Durango Herald Newspaper to honor Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th Birthday. The title comes from a quote in Albert Einstein’s Autobiographical Notes: “…Something deeply hidden had to be behind things.” Music is a brief glimpse into our shared humanity, with all of its breathless beauty, all of its intense joy and deep sorrow, and all of its ugliness and violence too. In Beethoven’s work we get a glimpse of someone who felt especially deeply—a glimpse into a person whose passion and urgency and hope for what was possible in the world seemed to pour out of him like an endless fountain. One of my own first formative experiences with Classical music began with Beethoven, stumbling on to a dusty recording of his Fifth Symphony pulled from the discount bin of an electronics superstore that opened up a world of musical possibilities for me. In Beethoven’s Third Symphony, Eroica, the heroic opening often gives way to music of heartrending melancholy, most notably in the funeral march of the second movement, revealing a darker meaning beneath the bright surface. I see Albert Einstein’s pursuits in physics as related to Beethoven’s—a continual searching for something deeply hidden. For me, this piece is a parallel universe to Eroica—a musing that starts with some of the same musical material but takes it in a very different direction. The darker material of the funeral march opens the piece and is stretched and pulled, gradually revealing an even darker core that eventually churns and spins into light.

More information: https://davidbiedenbender.com/work/something-deeply-hidden/

something deeply hidden

Performed by: 
Kevin Sedatole, conductor
Beaumont Brass Quintet
members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Michigan State University Brass

Program Note: Spartan Fanfare for brass and percussion was written for my wonderful colleagues in the Michigan State University College of Music. The fanfare is an arrangement of material from the finale sections of my orchestral pieces Dance the Dream Awake and Strange, Beautiful Noises, which I had long wanted to adapt into a short fanfare for brass and percussion.

Spartan Fanfare

Unquiet Hours (for winds and percussion)

Commissioned by the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic

Performed by the United States Air Force Band; Colonel Don Schofield, conductor |  2020 American Bandmasters Association National Conference, Biloxi, MS

More information: https://www.davidbiedenbender.com/unquiet-hours/

Unquiet Hours

Performed by the Don Sinta Saxophone Quartet. 

you've been talking in your sleep

Performed by Taimur Sullivan, soprano saxophone and Zach Shemon, alto saxophone.

Staying the Night was commissioned by the Crescent Duo (Joanna White, flute and Kennen White, clarinet) and Central Michigan University and is a collaborative project with poet Robert Fanning, whose poem should always precede this piece in performance in recorded form (recording available through the composer). Robert’s beautiful words served as the stimulus for this music, and I am deeply indebted to him for his work, without which this piece could not exist.

This version for two saxophones was created for Taimur Sullivan and Zach Shemon.

Staying the Night is from Robert Fanning's Our Sudden Museum (Salmon Poetry)
http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=408&a=29
 
Robert Fanning, poet
https://robertfanning.wordpress.com

Staying The Night

University of Colorado at Boulder Concert Band
Matthew Dockendorf, conducting

Ghost Apparatus

Shell and Wing (2018)

commissioned for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Kevin Noe, Director by the American Composers Forum CONNECT Program.  

Instrumentation: solo soprano, flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, violoncello, percussion, piano

Premiere:  July 6 & 7, 2018; Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble with Lindsay Kesselman, soprano and Kevin Noe, conductor; City Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA

About:

My sons, Izaak and Declan, have profoundly changed and shaped the way I see the world. I initially set out to write a collection of vignettes about them, about childhood—a way to capture the beautiful, tender, and often silly and hilarious moments of their lives, but, my plans suddenly shifted after yet another all too common incidence of violence against children at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. In response to this violence, I felt compelled to respond in some way—to respond to my fear of sending my sons out into this violent world. Shell and Wing emerged as a collaboration and a response to these parental impulses with my friend and fellow father, poet Robert Fanning. Robert’s response to our conversation—a poem in two stanzas—gave voice to the ambiguity, the conflict I feel as a parent—this profound longing to protect my children coupled with the knowledge that I must also let them go.

The first poem is in a parent’s voice—my voice—and the second poem is in a child’s voice—that of my sons. Musically, the first movement is a sort of fragmented lullaby interwoven with a distorted memory of Robert Schumann’s Träumerei(Dreaming/Reverie) from Kinderszenen(Scenes from Childhood). Schumann’s harmonies are pulled and stretched until they resemble only a distant echo of the original. The second movement begins with solo piano, distant and aching that transforms into a quiet, dream-like duet for the soprano and vibraphone. The child’s song grows and builds, underpinned by a chaconne—a repeated chord progression—and eventually becomes the same song heard in the first movement, the parent’s song.

Read about Robert Fanning’s experience collaborating on this piece: https://robertfanning.wordpress.com/2018/06/01/collaborative-efforts/

SHELL AND WING

by Robert Fanning

I. SHELL                                                             

I hold you, breath beneath my skin, a nest of flesh. No world can break
you here. Shadows feather the shell. If you fly, you’ll never go far.
I dream my body border and sky, my heart an aviary. In my sleep, you wake.
I hold you. Breathe a nest beneath my skin, flesh no world can break.
Now, the season’s errant and astray; coiled rage hisses to strike. Hate leaks
into vine and branch, river and vein. So, song in me, rise. May death take no air
I hold. You, my breath beneath. My skin a nest of flesh. No world can break
you. Here, shadow. Feather, never go. I’m a shell if you fly. Fly far.                                                         

II. WING

You dream you hold me in your nest of breath. Before they lifted me
from mingled blood, I rose, a song within your feathered sleep
for centuries. Your veined branches mapped my lidded eyes. A tree
you dream you hold. In your nest of breaths before me. They lifted me
from you to veil the sky. I flew through your death in learning to fly.
No world bears us. Though we slip our nets of wing and flesh, may love keep
you, this dream you hold in your nest of breath, before they lift me
from mingled blood. I wrote your song within. My feathered sleep.


© Copyright 2018 by Robert Fanning
International copyright secured. All rights reserved.

Shell And Wing

for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, viola, and cello

Grit

Stomp, for wind ensemble. Performed by John Williamson and the Central Michigan University Wind Ensemble. 

Stomp

Luminescence, for winds and percussion (Grade 4). Performed by Michael Haithcock and the North Carolina All State Honor Band (2012). 

Luminescence

for band. For more information: www.davidbiedenbender.com/melodious-thunk/

Melodious Thunk

for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and marimba

Stomp (chamber ensemble)

SEVERANCE (concerto for saxophone quartet and wind ensemble)

Premiere: January 10, 2020, U.S. Navy Band Saxophone Quartet, Captain Kenneth C. Collins, conductor :: International Saxophone Symposium :: George Mason Center for the Arts, Fairfax, VA

U.S. Navy Band Saxophone Quartet

Jonathan Yanik, soprano saxophone
Patrick Martin, alto saxophone
David Babich, tenor saxophone
Dana Booher, baritone saxophone

SEVERANCE was commissioned by the United States Navy Band. The title for the piece and for the second and third movements come from a linked collection of poetry called SEVERANCE by my friend Robert Fanning, who has been the muse for several of my recent works. Robert’s poetry often gives voice to my own emotional world in a way that is deeply important to me. In Severance, the main characters, two marionettes, Professor and Grief, sever their wires and escape the play and the theatre in Winterland in “search for a life untethered and authentic, crossing from day into night, from wood into flesh, from wakefulness into dream, from ice into thaw. Severance sings of a way—through the narrows of time and body—toward healing.” (Severance by Robert Fanning, Salmon Poetry).

In the first movement, Clouds of Remembering, I introduce all of the musical material for the piece, but it is often shrouded and ephemeral, always fleeting, like the distant memory of something or someone lost.

The second movement, Every Way Through Hurts, is dedicated to my friend Jovanni-Rey Verceles de Pedro. Jovanni and I met at the University of Michigan while completing our graduate work. He was a pianist, professor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. After graduation, we both moved to Idaho—Jovanni taught piano at the University of Idaho, and I taught music composition and theory at Boise State University. He recorded my Rhapsody for solo piano on his first studio album, and I had planned to write him a new piece, but Jovanni died suddenly in the summer of 2019 while traveling with the global nonprofit organization he founded. When I heard about his passing it took my breath away. At 36 years old—a young, hopeful, energetic musician, a person with whom I felt a kinship and a related musical path—it just didn’t seem possible that he was gone. The outpouring of grief from his friends and family was extraordinary—he had connected with so many people through music. There is no way around grief—every way through it hurts—but very gradually, the waves of grief become smaller and grow farther apart, and we come to know that we can weather them. This music is for Jovanni, and the piano plays a prominent role, often gently tracing the saxophone solo lines like some strange shadow or echo.

The third movement, Follow the threads: Unstrung, begins with metaphorical darkness. The saxophonists play slow melodic lines—threads—that are passed around the quartet and are eventually passed to the ensemble as the quartet’s music transforms into raindrops and then into a peculiar dance. I imagine the marionettes dancing, awkwardly at first, recently untethered and free from their strings, but becoming assured and ecstatic as they dance through grief, through their scars, through the waves, and toward healing.

Robert Fanning’s Severance is published by Salmon Poetry and you can find out more about his work at www.robertfanning.wordpress.com.

www.davidbiedenbender.com

Severance – I. Clouds Of Remembering

Severance – III. Follow The Threads

Severance – II. Every Way Through Hurts

SEVERANCE (concerto for saxophone quartet and wind ensemble)

Premiere: January 10, 2020, U.S. Navy Band Saxophone Quartet, Captain Kenneth C. Collins, conductor :: International Saxophone Symposium :: George Mason Center for the Arts, Fairfax, VA

U.S. Navy Band Saxophone Quartet

Jonathan Yanik, soprano saxophone
Patrick Martin, alto saxophone
David Babich, tenor saxophone
Dana Booher, baritone saxophone

SEVERANCE was commissioned by the United States Navy Band. The title for the piece and for the second and third movements come from a linked collection of poetry called SEVERANCE by my friend Robert Fanning, who has been the muse for several of my recent works. Robert’s poetry often gives voice to my own emotional world in a way that is deeply important to me. In Severance, the main characters, two marionettes, Professor and Grief, sever their wires and escape the play and the theatre in Winterland in “search for a life untethered and authentic, crossing from day into night, from wood into flesh, from wakefulness into dream, from ice into thaw. Severance sings of a way—through the narrows of time and body—toward healing.” (Severance by Robert Fanning, Salmon Poetry).

In the first movement, Clouds of Remembering, I introduce all of the musical material for the piece, but it is often shrouded and ephemeral, always fleeting, like the distant memory of something or someone lost.

The second movement, Every Way Through Hurts, is dedicated to my friend Jovanni-Rey Verceles de Pedro. Jovanni and I met at the University of Michigan while completing our graduate work. He was a pianist, professor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. After graduation, we both moved to Idaho—Jovanni taught piano at the University of Idaho, and I taught music composition and theory at Boise State University. He recorded my Rhapsody for solo piano on his first studio album, and I had planned to write him a new piece, but Jovanni died suddenly in the summer of 2019 while traveling with the global nonprofit organization he founded. When I heard about his passing it took my breath away. At 36 years old—a young, hopeful, energetic musician, a person with whom I felt a kinship and a related musical path—it just didn’t seem possible that he was gone. The outpouring of grief from his friends and family was extraordinary—he had connected with so many people through music. There is no way around grief—every way through it hurts—but very gradually, the waves of grief become smaller and grow farther apart, and we come to know that we can weather them. This music is for Jovanni, and the piano plays a prominent role, often gently tracing the saxophone solo lines like some strange shadow or echo.

The third movement, Follow the threads: Unstrung, begins with metaphorical darkness. The saxophonists play slow melodic lines—threads—that are passed around the quartet and are eventually passed to the ensemble as the quartet’s music transforms into raindrops and then into a peculiar dance. I imagine the marionettes dancing, awkwardly at first, recently untethered and free from their strings, but becoming assured and ecstatic as they dance through grief, through their scars, through the waves, and toward healing.

Robert Fanning’s Severance is published by Salmon Poetry and you can find out more about his work at www.robertfanning.wordpress.com.

www.davidbiedenbender.com

Cerulean was written for and commissioned by the Donald Sinta Saxophone Quartet.

Cerulean was inspired by my son Izaak. From the moment he was born, he was extraordinarily curious and inquisitive. He often looked around the room, searching for interesting objects, enthusiastically turning his head, and opening his big, beautiful blue eyes wide to get a better view of the world around him. He also loved (and still loves) to find and follow interesting sounds, including the sirens of passing fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances. In the first movement, Sirens, I imagined waves of sound approaching and then departing in slow motion, like some strange police siren heard through a baby’s distorted sense of time.

The second movement is a simple lullaby. Rather than sing the same lullaby for him each night, I often found myself humming long, repetitive, improvised phrases that eventually, over the course of rocking him to sleep, coalesced into a more coherent melody. The movement begins with soft, hushed waves—different waves than the first movement. These waves eventually transform into something more ecstatic, as I imagine him making the transition from consciousness to the exciting, magical place of a baby’s dreams. Finally, I find the tune for which I was searching, played by the soprano saxophone and accompanied by a hymn-like chorale played by the rest of the quartet that has been slightly distorted, as if the sound has been refracted through the flickering flame of a candle that is warmly illuminating Izaak’s room as he sleeps.

The final movement, Goof Groove, is inspired by this goofy dance he liked to do in our living room. As a baby, he would sit and awkwardly bob his torso back and forth in a peculiar meter while singing his own crazy, lilting tune; however, as he got older and learned to walk, he began to run and spin in circles, dancing and singing silly songs. I imagined the goofy bobbing of his infancy transforming into the spinning circular dancing he now does at four years old, eventually spinning out of control, finally arriving in a tired, happy, dizzy heap on the floor.

Buy album: www.brightshiny.ninja/ex-machina

Released by:
Bright Shiny Things
Release date:
15 March 2020

Cerulean [excerpts, all movements]

Concerto for alto saxophone and wind ensemble. Premiered by Jonathan Yanik (saxophone), Captain Brian O. Walden, and the United States Navy Band. 

Dreams in the Dusk

Composer David Biedenbender’s music has been described as “simply beautiful” [twincities.com] and is noted for its “rhythmic intensity” [NewMusicBox] and “stirring harmonies” [Boston Classical Review]. “Modern, venturesome, and inexorable…The excitement, intensity, and freshness that characterizes Biedenbender’s music hung in the [air] long after the last note was played” [Examiner.com]. David has written music for the concert stage as well as for dance and multimedia collaborations, and his work is often influenced by his diverse musical experiences in rock and jazz bands as an electric bassist, in wind, jazz, and New Orleans-style brass bands as a euphonium, bass trombone, and tuba player, and by his study of Indian Carnatic Music. His present creative interests include working with everyone from classically trained musicians to improvisers, acoustic chamber music to large ensembles, and interactive electronic interfaces to live brain data. He has had the privilege of collaborating with and being commissioned by many talented performers and ensembles, including Alarm Will Sound, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, Stenhammar String Quartet, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, U.S. Navy Band, Philharmonie Baden-Baden (Germany), VocalEssence, and Eastman Wind Ensemble, among many others. 

He is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at Michigan State University. He holds degrees in composition from the University of Michigan and Central Michigan University, and has also studied at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, the Aspen Music Festival, and in Mysore, India where he studied carnatic music. For more information, visit: www.davidbiedenbender.com.

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