belly of a snake for percussion+electronics+variable instruments

Belly Of A Snake

This epigram derives from a ritual dedication:
The text is:
Queen of Black Earth Egypt, divine Isis
In Linen robes, accept my well-set offering:
Flaky sacrificial cake on the wood embers;
Two dazzling water-loving geese; nard
Crumbled around seed-seething figs; raisins
Like lizard skins; fragrant frankincense.
But most, great queen: save Damis from poverty
As you did from the sea, and a gold-horned kid is yours.

The performers are: Cristina Grifone, soprano/speaker; Joe Zeitlin cello; David Ryan, zither, lyre, percussion; Dave Fowler, drums

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The first Prelude from my ongoing 'Preludes (for piano)' suite [2021-] , which uses serial techniques. The four transformations of the set complex are complemented by the additional use of free melodic inversion. I have dedicated the piece to my former composition teacher,        
Mr. Peter Nickol [ https://www.impulse-music.co.uk/peternickol/ ]

Preludes (for piano) - I - [for Peter Nickol]

flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion instruments
and experimental animation
link to video: https://vimeo.com/778634629

premiered by ensemble recherche at Harvard University

animal is about a creature stuck in a claustrophobic room. It doesn't know what it is or where it belongs.
trying to remember, am I one or thousands?
maybe flesh? Or stone? Perhaps a color?
or a sea of earth.
trying to remember, it forgets.
as a sudden impulsive act of madness, it takes refuge to the unknown. so, it unfolds. to see how it is to feel. but what is growing inside of me? is it my face? arms? legs? my teeth?
i think I’m growing a new organ.

Animal

Performed by Ensemble neoN at MATA Festival, NYC.
Commissioned by MATA.
3 minute extract of a 15-20 minute piece for sextet (Bari sax, percussion, piano, violin, bass guitar, soprano). 
The piece mixes fully notated passages with cueing instructions/cueing games in different sections of the piece.

Splinter - Extract

Live in October 2023 at the VIII Festival de Jóvenes Guitarristas José Luis Rodrigo in Madrid. 
Audio by RCSMM sound design students.

for Stella - Cornelius Cardew (live) [version 2]

"Earthward, Ever Circling" (2023) is the first piece in Anna Berg's trilogy that revolves around the ancient Vietnamese Buddhist funeral ritual of playing music for the deceased to help the soul in the reincarnation process. 

About the piece: 
"The living need light, the dead need music". The quote is from a Vietnamese Buddhist funeral ritual, where different forms of music are used to prepare the soul of the newly deceased for reincarnation. Funeral music is an important part of Vietnamese cultural heritage and tradition, that along with many rites across the world is about to disappear. 

The string trio Earthward, Ever Circling (2023) is the first piece in a series where I'm interested in how funeral music is used as a means of communication between living and dead, between the present and eternity. In the piece, this is reflected in the way the phrases move through different registers. 


They reach down towards the earthly and up towards the divine and eternal. The music constantly alternates between these stages. Like the soul's possible movements to its next life, the different elements in the music have different speed and weight, some parts swirling more hectically, while others parts are more static,
waiting.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) is one of the Western thinkers who embraced the idea of reincarnation. In his poem "Gesang der Geister über den Wassern", he writes about how the human soul resembles water; coming from heaven, to heaven it rises, and again it returns to earth, in an eternal, alternating movement. I discovered an English translation of the poem done by the American writer Adam Sedia (b. 1984), where the last verse reads "earthward, ever circling", which is the background for the title of this piece.

The piece was commissioned by Guro Kleven Hagen, Eivind Ringstad and Amalie Stalheim, with support by The Norwegian Composers’ fund. 

The recording is from the premiere February 25th 2023 at Interpuls festival. The mastering is by Mats Claesson. 

Performers
Guro Kleven Hagen, violin
Eivind Ringstad, viola
Sverre Barratt-Due, cello

Score:
https://www.nb.no/noter/produkt/earthward-ever-circling-for-string-trio/

Earthward, Ever Circling (2023) for string trio

"Earthward, Ever Circling" (2023) is the second piece in Anna Berg's trilogy that revolves around the ancient Vietnamese Buddhist funeral ritual of playing music for the deceased to help the soul in the reincarnation process.

Performed by Ensemble NEXT and Simon Proust, conductor

Ensemble NEXT
Minaya Chapelain, flute
Jasmine Daquin, oboe/English horn
Akiho Nishimura, clarinets (Bb and bass)
Miho Kiyokawa, tenor and soprano saxophone
Reika Sato, violin
Sengyun Kim, viola
Yi Zhou, cello
Vincent Alves De Palma Delia, double bass

The recording is from the premiere in Paris, 21.03.2023.

Credits from the team at CNSMDP.
Alexis Ling, responsable du service audiovisuel
Frédéric Martin, réalisateur
Théo Clavere, chef monteur – assistant réalisateur
Jean-Marc Lyzwa, ingénieur du son
Julien Aléonard, projection sonore
Jacques Warnier, régie informatique
Jacques Warnier, Olviier Montagnon, conception, fabrication des jouets
Caroline Christiaens, conseillère musicale
Nathan Robain, direction artistique

Mastering by
Mats Claesson

Twirling, Revolving (2023) for chamber ensemble

A calm piece for guitar and electronics composed by Paul Beaudoin and dedicated to Denis Sorokin.

"echoes of solace in times of turmoil, invites performers to convey contrasting moods of tranquility and unrest."

Home rec (2025).

echoes of solace in times of turmoil - Paul Beaudoin

Xymene II (2024) performed and commissioned by Trio KAMÖ / Le Bestiaire

Alexina Cheval, flute
Ulysse Junek, viola
Emma Prieur-Blanc, harp

Performed at Maison de Norvège, Paris, November 30th 2024. 

Recording: Hermod Ringset Bentsen and Rune Rebne
Master: Mats Claesson

Photo: Gorm K. Gaare

Xymene II (2024) for harp trio

for Del Sol String Quartet
performed at UC Irvine

Rock Cloud

David Ryan is a visual artist, musician and writer who is actively involved in contemporary music. Publications include ‘We Have Eyes as Well as Ears: Experimental Music and the Visual Arts’ in The Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music, (Ashgate, 2009); ‘Changing the System: Indeterminacy and Politics in the 1970s’ in Christian Wolff: Changing the System, (Ashgate, 2010), and forthcoming, ‘Drawing Towards Sound: Notations, Diagrams, Drawings’ in A Companion to Contemporary Drawing Wiley-Blackwell, 2020. He has also exhibited widely with exhibitions and screenings at the Whitechapel Gallery, Flowers East London, Flowers West, California USA, Konzerthaus, Berlin; Recent exhibitions include Crossing Abstraction at Kunstlerhaus Bethianen, Berlin (2009), and the Kunsthaus and Forum Konkrete Kunst, Erfurt, Germany (2012), he curated At the Point of Gesture (2013) at the Lion and Lamb Gallery and Wimbledon Space (2015); He was included in After Image (Emerson Gallery, Berlin 2013), June Mostra, British School at Rome and Spazi Aperti, Accademia di Romana, Roma (2016). He has broadcast for Danish Radio, BBC Radio 3 (Stockhausen with Apartment House), Resonance FM and Radiophrenia at CCA Glasgow (2016).  Screenings have taken place at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire; Issue Project Space, New York; Fondazione Isabella Scelsi, Rome (2010); Darmstadt Ferienkurse for Neue Musik (2011); V22 Space, London (2012); Logos, Ghent; Qo2 in Brussels, Belgium (2012); Institute of Contemporary Art (2015), London; a screening and performance at the Teatro Arsenale, as part of the Venice Biennale (2015), AngelicA, Bologna (2016), and the British School at Rome (2017). He is performing as a trio with Beatrice Miniaci, Flutes, and Gabriele Pagliano, Bass, the Opera Aperta project, and  - when he can - the London Improviser's Orchestra.

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David Ryan

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