Orchestral

"Direction" is a piano suite in four movements. The three last movements are inspired by one scientific process each, and the first movement consists of three short introductions to the rest of the piece. Performed by Jonas Olsson at Connect Festival 2013, in Malmö, Sweden.

Direction (2011) - mov. 2 - Decay (Jonas Olsson, piano, 2013)

This is a piece about our tendency to feel immortal – or our inability to really realize that we are mortal. It is also about what happens to us when death suddenly comes uncomfortably close.
The title, “Kostymen sys i det tysta” is in Swedish, the final words of Tomas Tranströmer’s poem “Svarta vykort” which deals with this subject, and an English translation would be “The Suit is Sewn in Silence”.

”Kostymen sys i det tysta” is also a personal composition: in 2016 I was diagnosed with leukemia resulting in several years of treatment.

The piece has two sides:

The music has a kind of inherent uncertainty that comes from the two playing techniques that the entire piece is based on: glissandi and multiphonics. Both techniques create instability and ambivalence regarding pitch, and this “musical anxiety” could illustrate the fear of death felt by someone mortally ill.

But there is also a positive side – and the piece should mainly be considered an optimistic one – because both these playing techniques are also suitable for creating soundscapes full of thoughtfulness, illustrating for example gratitude for life and science and the importance of human relations.

The piece is dedicated to Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, who premiered it in 2022, and also to my sister Anna and her stem cells – without them, it is not certain that I would have been alive today.


Live recording with Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, March 2023 in Norrköping, Sweden.
Painting by Anna Riebe.

Kostymen sys i det tysta (with Stockholm Saxophone Quartet 2023)

This is a piece about our tendency to feel immortal – or our inability to really realize that we are mortal. It is also about what happens to us when death suddenly comes uncomfortably close.
The title, “Kostymen sys i det tysta” is in Swedish, the final words of Tomas Tranströmer’s poem “Svarta vykort” which deals with this subject, and an English translation would be “The Suit is Sewn in Silence”.

”Kostymen sys i det tysta” is also a personal composition: in 2016 I was diagnosed with leukemia resulting in several years of treatment.

The piece has two sides:

The music has a kind of inherent uncertainty that comes from the two playing techniques that the entire piece is based on: glissandi and multiphonics. Both techniques create instability and ambivalence regarding pitch, and this “musical anxiety” could illustrate the fear of death felt by someone mortally ill.

But there is also a positive side – and the piece should mainly be considered an optimistic one – because both these playing techniques are also suitable for creating soundscapes full of thoughtfulness, illustrating for example gratitude for life and science and the importance of human relations.

The piece is dedicated to Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, who premiered it in 2022, and also to my sister Anna and her stem cells – without them, it is not certain that I would have been alive today.

Live recording with Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, March 2024 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Painting by Anna Riebe.

Kostymen sys i det tysta (with Stockholm Saxophone Quartet 2024)

One of three solo works composed at Villa San Michele (Capri, Italy) in 2023, based on art objects from the villa’s collection. This composition was inspired by a sarcophagus fragment from the 3rd century AD, representing the mythological horse race between Pelops and King Oenomaus, a dramatic and violent legend behind how the first Olympic Games were instituted in ancient Greece. 

Live recording from the world premiere at Odeum, Lund University in November 2024.

olimpiade – for solo violin (2023/2024, Madalena Rodrigues – violin)

One of three solo pieces composed at Villa San Michele (Capri, Italy) in 2023, based on art objects from the villa’s collection. This composition is inspired by the sculptures and reliefs depicting three characters from ancient Greek mythology – Apollo, Narcissus and Hypnos – that are found in the villa's bedroom, hence the title "camera da letto". It is believed that the choice of objects has a strong connection to how the villa's first owner, the eccentric doctor Axel Munthe, saw himself and his own personality. The music is based on the exciting contrasts and contradictions that these three mythological personalities can create when their essences are combined.

camera da letto – for solo clarinet (2023/2024, Natalie Eriksson – klarinett)

This solo violin piece is inspired by the Merchants' Chapel, ("Krämarkapellet") in Sankt Petri Church in Malmö, Sweden. "Horror Vacui", latin for "fear of emptiness", is a phenomenon in arts and culture, in which the entire space or artwork is filled with detail and content, leaving as little perceived emptiness as possible. This was very common in medieval art and it is exactly what you will experience when you enter the chapel in Malmö. The visitor finds themselves overwhelmed by a multitude of creatures, people, saints, warriors, skeletons, coats of arms, devils… all surrounded by dense green foliage. The concept of "fear of emptiness" also broadly relates to our society of today, where every empty second must be filled with consumption, amusement or attention – not least on social media.

Recording from October 2024 with Peter Sheppard Skærved, violin, made in the very chapel that inspired the composition. The work is part of Sheppard Skærved's "A Chapel" project, which has brought music inspired by the Merchants' Chapel to several concerts venues around both Europe and the US.

Photo by Peter Sheppard Skærved.

Horror Vacui (2024; Peter Sheppard Skærved, violin)

One of three solo works composed at Villa San Michele (Capri, Italy) in 2023, based on art objects from the villa’s collection. This composition was inspired by the two sphinxes at the villa; the bigger 3000-years-old Egyptian one overlooking the Gulf of Naples and the smaller Etruscan one which formerly stood there, but was moved further into the garden when the bigger one took its place. The piece is composed for one flutist playing piccolo flute in the beginning, later changing to alto flute.

Recorded February 2025 at Odeum, Lund University.

sfingi – per flauto solo (flauto piccolo e flauto contralto) | 2023/2024 | Amanda Salonen Ripa, flute

Vertigo. Limbo and borderland. The feeling of not knowing where you are or what is what. This work builds on musical ideas from my saxophone quartet "Kostymen sys i det tysta” from 2022, in which the two playing techniques embouchure-glissando and multiphonics create soundscapes where the sounds go in and out of each other so that in the end you don't know who is playing what. Now, the organ is also added to the soundscape, with its multifaceted sound palette and its ability to fill the entire church interior with its tones. In this way, a feeling is created that the music comes from everywhere and nowhere, something that is also reinforced by the fact that the saxophonists begin to move around the church room during the second half of the piece. “Vertigo” is also a journey between different energy levels and emotional states, where the violent and chaotic transitions into the eerie and mysterious or the pensive and calm.

The recording is from the world premiere in Gothenburg Cathedral on October 19th 2025.

Vertigo – for saxophones and organ (2025, with Stockholm Saxophone Quartet and Mila Thoors)

This piece is inspired by the paining "Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man" by Salvador Dalí (which is also the source of inspirattion for one of the movements of the ensemble piece "Dalí I-III"). After a short introduction, "Geopoliticus Child" has three major sections based on three different visual aspects of the painting. These are "The Child", "The Egg-And-Earth" and "Birth of the New Man", followed by an epilogue.

Composed in 2013, the piece won second prize at the Uppsala Composition Competition (Uppsala Tonsättartävling)in 2014.

Instrumentation: 2222-2200-1+0-str

Geopoliticus Child (2013, for sinfonietta)

Composed in 2013.
Instrumentation: 2222-4231-1+1-str

Eldpredikan (2013, for symphonic orchestra)

Composed in 2015
Instrumentation: 3333-4331-1+3-hp-str

Subterranean pressure, volcanic eruptions, rivers of burning stone, rains of ash and lava, and finally the earth coming to rest. 

"Magma" won third prize at the Andrey Petrov Composition Competition in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 2016, where it was performed by St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra in St. Petersburg Grand Philharmonic Hall with conductor Arkady Steinlucht.

First performed by Norrköping Symphony Orchestra with conductor Michael Bartosh.

Magma (for large orchestra)

Full title: "Time Reflections - Anniversary Fanfare for Orchestra"
Dedicated to, and commissioned by, Lunds Stadsorkester for the orchestra’s 50th anniversary.
Instrumentation: 2222-4331-1+2-hp-str
Composed in 2015
First performed in October 2015. This recording is from February 2017, also with Lunds Stadsorkester, in Stadshallen, Lund, Sweden. Conductor: Roger Andersson.

David Riebe on ”Time Reflections” (in Swedish, from the program text of the first performance):

”Om jag skall sammanfatta mina idéer kring detta jubileumsstycke med några ord blir det ’femtio år på sju minuter’. Detta, att försöka trycka in ett halvsekel på denna väldigt korta tidsrymd, har varit min huvudsakliga ambition – och inspiration – under hela kompositionsprocessen. Att försöka greppa själva tidsrymden 50 år när man bara levt drygt hälften av den tiden har naturligtvis varit en utmaning.

Jag har i stycket bland annat velat förmedla den känsla av flyktighet som jag tror att de flesta – gamla som unga – upplever ibland. Hur händelser liksom blåser förbi som torra löv i en höststorm utan att man skänker dem någon närmare tanke. Man strävar mot ett mål, och lyckas kanske uppnå det, men direkt finns där ett nytt mål att vandra mot och omedelbart har det tidigare målet påbörjat sin resa mot glömskan; man blir aldrig färdig. När en händelse har blåst förbi över axeln är det lätt att den försvinner iväg i det förflutna, lämnas kvar, glöms bort. Men samtidigt som denna eviga strävan kan upplevas som lite tröstlöst tror jag att den är nödvändig för många av oss människor, den kan i själva verket hjälpa till att ge vår besynnerliga tillvaro en mening. Just därför är detta jubileumsverk ett optimistiskt stycke, ett stycke som blickar framåt mot kommande år med iver och entusiasm. Nästan hela stycket bygger på uppbyggnader mot olika höjdpunkter. Det är också därigenom som idén att betrakta verket som en fanfar – stycket bär undertiteln ”Anniversary Fanfare for Orchestra” – kändes lämplig, trots det genremässigt lite udda med en fanfar på nästan sju minuter för symfoniorkester.

Denna fanfartanke är extra tydlig i den långsamma inledningen. Ungefär en halv minut in i stycket följer sedan den första av två snabba formdelar där jag velat uttrycka flyktigheten och strävan som beskrivs ovan. Den andra snabba formdelen avslutar kompositionen. I mitten kommer ett långsamt parti som ska gestalta en nog så viktig eftertanke – begrundan. Man tänker tillbaka på tiden som gått, händelser som passerat, kanske reflekterar lite extra över en specifik händelse. ’Reflections’ i titeln syftar både på tidens reflektioner och på våra egna reflektioner över tiden.”

Time Reflections (with Lunds Stadsorkester and conductor Roger Andersson)

Composed in 2016/2017
Instrumentation: String Orchestra

"Drops of Stem Cells" is based on the composer's experiences of a stem cell transplantation in 2016.
The piece was selected to be included in the presentation day for new Swedish orchestral music organized by the Swedish Society of Composers in 2017, where it was performed by the string orchestra Musica Vitae.

Drops of Stem Cells (2016/2017, for string orchestra)

For solo violin. Composed in 2011.
Based on a musical idea from the string quartet "Paradoxes": https://soundcloud.com/davidriebe/sets/string-quartet-no-1-paradoxes
The title refers to the titles of the two movements of "Paradoxes": "Achilles and the Tortoise" and "Schroedinger's Cat".

A Cat, a Warrior, and a Tortoise (2011, Peter Sheppard Skaerved, violin)

This piece is from a series of three pieces which also consists of "Subjectivity for flute" and "Subjectivity for piano".
Ivona Grbavac, flute.
Fredrik Schützer, piano.
Live recording.

Objectivity (2013, for Flute and Piano)

For solo violin.
Composed in 2019.
Live recording courtesy of Colin Still, Optic Nerve.

Grammy nominated British violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved premiering the solo violin composition “Coffee by the Plague Pit”, based on the painting “Plague Pit No More: Conversation and Coffee in the Sunshine” by Sheppard Skærved himself (see picture). The painting shows a few people at Charterhouse Square in London, a place which was the site of the largest plague pit in the city during the Black Death with tens of thousands of people buried there.

Sheppard Skærved writes about the painting: ”On a summer day last year, my wife and I sat with a cup of coffee in Charterhouse Square, watching people enjoying the sunshine and talking about the large burial pit discovered there.”

The piece tries to capture the absurd contradiction between today’s peaceful square and the horrors of the plague in the 14th century. In the effort to understand the contrasts, the music asks questions about time and space, binding together an everyday conversation over a cup of coffee with the medieval mass grave below.

The performance took place at the chapel of The Charterhouse, just next to the square, in September 2019.

Coffee by the Plague Pit (Peter Sheppard Skærved, violin)

Composer of contemporary music – orchestral pieces, chamber music and electroacoustic music.
Based in Lund, Sweden.

Composer David Riebe

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