This is a short Violin Sonata in the classical style, named Amadeus since the first movement is heavily influenced by the early Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
It consists of three movements:

1. Allegro giocoso (Sonata form without development) 
2. Adagio poco doloroso (ABA form) 
3. Tempo di minuetto (Minuet and Trio) 

The "Amadeus" sonata was composed almost by accident after a class in chamber music where I had to substitute for the pianist in Mozarts Eb Sonata Kv. 26.
As I came home after rehearsal I composed the first movement and the similarities with the Mozart are clearly heard in the beginning of the movement.
A couple of days later I composed a complementary Minuet and Trio and thought the work was finished.
A month later however I felt that the work needed a contrast so I decided to complete it by composing a short slow movement in the parallell minor (fun fact: this is actually the first time I have ever composed in the key of B minor) 
The movements are bound together by their opening motives which all have a similar figuration. 

Sonata No. 2 "Amadeus" in D Major Op. 25, for violin and piano (complete)

This is a small scale Sonata in the style of Domenico Scarlatti.

Sonata alla barocco in g minor, for piano

This is the second piano prelude (after the one in E Major https://soundcloud.com/davidunger/etude-in-e-major-for-piano?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing) that I write to practice my skils in prolonging tonic and dominant chords. This one has a slightly more archaic feel to it.

Three short preludes Op. 26 No. 1 in C Major

In his book "School of practical composition" Carl Czerny suggests that we should practice our composition by bar for bar modelling new pieces on already existing pieces.
As an example he uses a transcription of the first movement of Mozart's Sonata for four hands k. 381 and writes his own new sonata movement modelled upon it.
Here I have followed in Czerny's footsteps and done the same.

Sonata movement in D Major, for piano (modelled after Mozart's k. 381)

This is my first prelude and fugue for piano. The prelude is a short fuguration prelude and the fugue is in strict counterpoint in three voices.

Prelude and fugue in d minor (complete) played by Stijn Claeys, for piano

This is my third prelude of what looks to become a small collection of Preludes. This time it is based on a galopping rythm and a melodic pattern inspired by folk music. 

Three short preludes Op. 26 No. 3 in G Major

This is a birthday gift to my collegue Robert Öhman for his 50th birthday. It was supposed to be sung as a short "happening" during choir practise for him (hense the short duration), as a short surprice for him but ended up being performed as a finale at the final concert of the year instead. Recorded live at Ceciliakapellet, Oskarshamns Folkhögskola May 20th 2014. Annie Hultstein, soprano, Birger Marmvik, organ Oskarshamns Folkhögskolas choir.

Gudabarnet (music by: David Unger, text by: Edith Södergran)

Two small songs about winter in southern Sweden. Live performance by chamber choir Cantores Calmarienses led by Torbjörn Westman. Recorded live in the chapel of Oskarshamn Community College in February 2012.

A poetic translation in English made by me in November 2015 reads as follows:

I.
Now stillness falls around us
and evening’s peace turns light,
and plains of white are sleeping
with houses in the night.

Behind the ridges forests
the sky is rosy red.
And soon the final noices
of flails in town are dead.

And shadow stretches deep black
the church tow’r o’er the plain,
it sparkles in the snow crust
with silvery blue grain.

II.
It is the time when dark and chrimson red
it breaths against the window’s frosty snow
one final note of sunset’s glow is spread,
where calm it shines in evenings misty glow.

It is the time, when all shivers resound,
when tiniest branch of elm and ash we saw
by quiet rocking wind is touched on ground
and dragging rustling in the heaps of straw.

It is that silent time when smooth a stream
towards you comes when peace of evening reigns,
when everything is strange and waken dream
and rosy mists are over fields and plains.


Skånska vinterkvällar op. 4, for mixed choir (music by: David Unger, texts by: Vilhelm Ekelund)

Tonerna (Music by: David Unger, text by: Erik Gustaf Geijer)

This is my setting of Ludwig Rellstab's text, sung by me to a digitally created accompaniment.

Herbst, for song and piano

Baritone: David Unger
Piano: MuseScore 4
Text: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Music: David Unger 

Nähe des Geliebten, for song and piano

This is my setting of Atle Burmans text Jag anar någons närhet nu (I can sense someone's closeness now) performed live by:
Cecilia Alrikson, soprano
Eric Lammers, guitar
Recorded in Figeholms kyrka, June 18 2023

Jag anar någons närhet nu, for song and guitar

This short sonata is paying hommage to Joseph Haydn, who's piano sonatas I studied while learning to compose in sonata form. The first movement is based on sketches from way back 2015, when I first tried my hand on composing my own sonatas. It was heavily revised in 2023, when I added it to a rondo composed in 2021 to complete a two movement sonata, that pays hommage to Haydn's short sonata in the same key (Hob. XVI:51), which in turn, although it has no dedicatee in the published editions, was sent to English composer Maria Hester Park as a thank you for some pieces sent to him by her in 1794. Hester Park's Sonata in C Major Op. 7 (from 1796) was, among others, one of the inspirations for my second piano sonata. So in a way this hommage is to the both of them.

The two movements are:
1. Allegro (Sonata-allegro form)
2. Vivace (Five part rondo form)

Piano Sonata No. 3 "Hommage" in D Major Op. 29 (complete), for piano

This is a small Magnificat composed as the final project for the composition class I took at Luleå University in the fall of 2023.
It is scored for a chamber setting of mezzosoprano, SAB and string trio and consists of three movements, wtih an opening choral movement, a solo recitative and a three voice canon:

1. Magnificat (SAB and strings)
2. Fecit potentiam (mezzosoprano and cello)
3. Gloria Patri (SAB and strings)

According to my professor "The choral writing in this is masterful", which of course was wonderful to hear. 

In lack of a real recording of the work, you are here presented with the midi from my MuseScore program.

Magnificat in Bb Major Op. 28, for mezzosoprano, SAB and string trio

Baritone: David Unger
Piano: MuseScore 4
Text: Gustaf Fröding

Ur Friederike Brions visor Op. 2 No. 3 - Jag mötte en flicka

Baritone: David Unger
Piano: MuseScore 4
Text: Bo Bergman

I drömmarnas spår Op. 7 No. 5 - Jordens önskan

This is my third Invention, composed in 2024.

Invention No. 3 in Bb Major, for piano

This is a setting of the lords prayer in Swedish, recorded live at the Castle of Kalmar, Sweden on February 15, 2015 with chamber choir Cantores Calmarienses led by Torbjörn Westman.

Vår Fader for mixed choir (music by: David Unger, text: The lords prayer)

This is a small minuet in the Classical style.

Minuet "Haydn" in G major, for string quartet

This is a small waltz in the 19th century tradition here beautifully played by the wonderful Tetyana Hoch, to whom the piece is also dedicated. 

Three piano pieces Op. 16 No. 2 - Valse Chopinesque in f minor, played by Tetyana Hoch

This is a theme and four variations over the Finnish folk song "Vem kan segla förutan vind" (Who can sail without wind).

Variations on a Finnish folk song in d minor, for piano

This is my first Invention, composed in the style of J.S. Bach according to the instructions in David Fuentes book Figuring out melody.

Invention No. 1 in G Major, for piano

This is the third of my six Goethe-Lieder. 

The complete opus contains the following settings:

1. An den Mond
2. Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt
3. Der König in Thule
4. Meeres Stille
5. Wanderers Nachtlied
6. Die schöne Nacht

Texts: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 
Music: David Unger 

Recorded live in Ceciliakapellet, Oskarshamns Folkhögskola during the annual teachers concert of Oskarshamns Organ players summer course on July 28th 2017.
Baritone and piano: David Unger.

Sechs Goethe-Lieder Op. 14 No. 3 - Der König In Thule (Music: David Unger, text: J W von Goethe)

Two small duets in A Major No. 2: Tempo di minuetto, for two violins

A waltz in the style of Fernando Sor who was born in Barcelona, hence the title.

Two waltzes No. 1: "Barcelona" - Waltz in A major, for classical guitar

Alice Usher, soprano
Jasmine Adrian-Dawson, mezzo soprano
Richard John, piano
Music: David Unger
Text: Hans Christian Andersen

Recorded live at the Minories Galleries, Colchester 23 July 2019

Jeg elsker dig Op. 18 No. 3 (with introductory speach), for two voices and piano

Song cycle composed in 2013 to texts by Hoffmann von Fallersleben. 

1. Frühlingsgruss
2. Schmetterling
3. Hinaus ins Freie!
4. Die Waise
5. Frühlings Ankunft

David Unger, baritone
Natalja Shakova, piano

Recorded live in Ceciliakapellet, Oskarshamns Folkhögskola October 1 2019.

The Frühlingslieder were written almost by accident while I was working on my op. 7 song cycle "I drömmarnas spår".
As I was searching for a way to tie that song cycle up I felt I needed a relief and started singing songs from Robert Schumann's Liederalbum fur die Jugend at the piano. All of these texts are also set to music in that very album. 
I found the rather small songs so delightful and fun to sing that I decided to write my own little collection in the same style.
Whether or not I managed? You tell me!
But after composing the first song of this cycle I finally found the inspiration to compose the fifth song of I drömmarnas spår as well, and so I ended up with two song cycles instead of one(!).

Fünf Frühlingslieder Op. 8, (complete)

This is a short prelude and fugue written for a collegue at work, back in 2019 (this is the revised version from 2023).
The two movements are connected by the theme of the prelude which comes back as countersubject in the fugue. 

Since I work in educating church cantors I have long wanted to write an organ fugue.
But since I do not play the organ myself, it didn't come naturally, until I listened to Bach's prelude and fugue in D Major, and found that an organ fugue can actually be humourous as well as well constructed by all the rules that comes with the genre.
I hope that my piece conveys some of that sense of humour as well as being contrapuntally sound, albeit being a much smaller and, if I dare say so, less pretentious work.

Prelude and fugue in C Major Op. 20 (complete), for organ

This is a short piano sonata in the Classical style dedicated to my mother for her 70th birthday.
It consists of three movements in the following sequence

1. Allegro scherzando (Sonata-allegro form) 
2. Andante semplice (varied ABABA form) 
3. Presto amabile (Five part Rondo form)

The Jane Austen sonata began its life as a Lied ohne Worte (the second movement) inspired by music from the movies of Jane Austen's books, hence the title.
To this I added what was originally intended as an opening movement to a never completed violin sonata and thought that I'd call it a two movement sonatina.
But as my Mother's 70th birthday was coming up I thought that I'd give her a special gift and composed the Rondo finale based on three themes spelling out the musical cipher of her three names (Ingrid Eleonora Unger) and so the sonata was complete.
In fact the last revisions where made as late as the morning of her birthday! 

Piano Sonata No. 1 "In Jane Austen's salon" in Eb Major Op. 21 (complete)

This is my string quartet in d minor.
The name Ave Maria comes from a short quotation of my song Ave Maria in the middle of the second movement.
It consists of three movements:

1. Allegro poco drammatico
2. Allegretto - Andante - Allegretto
3. Allegro molto agitato - Tempo di marcia - Allegro molto agitato

The score has been published by Gusthold Music Publisher and can be found here:

www.gustholdmusic.com

The String quartet in d minor started as an example on the white board during a lecture on part writing for strings. The white board example can still be heard unchanged as the first eight bars of the second movement.
The eight bars then turned into a full movement as I was teaching contrasts and how to possibly build upon a first material.
To that movement I later added the first and third movements to create a complete work for the school's string quartet.
Since the students were all rather early in their development all parts are written completely in first position on all instruments.
In May 2020 the work was published by Gusthold Music Publisher in USA. 

String quartet in d minor "Ave Maria" Op. 12 (complete)

Soprano: Cecilia Alrikson
Piano: Terés Löf

1. Escape at bedtime (text: Robert Loius Stevenson)
2. The more loving one (text: Wystan Hugh Auden)
3. The angel (text: William Blake)

Recorded live at Västervik Chamber Music Festival August 14, 2020.

Some have said that this may be the best pieces I have written all together. Whether that is true or not I leave to others to decide. But writing these songs I was very inspired, not least by Liza Lehmann, whom I had just discovered at the time, and her wonderful song cycle "The daisy chain" where she too sets Stevenson's Escape at bedtime, although her song is called Stars.
Inspired by her writing I set the first two songs in this cycle within two days in the fall of 2014.
The final song, set to a poem from Blake's "Songs of experience" is written in a more Schumannesque fashion, with the odd feature of starting in Major and ending in Minor.
All together, the three songs represent the protagonists relation to the night from childhood, through adolecense and old age, starting off rather naive but gradually becoming more serious and ending with an outburst. 

Three nocturnal songs Op. 11 (complete)

"Av hjärtat, sjung!" (From the heart, sing!) is a Cantata comissioned for the opening concert of the 18th century festival "L'Esprit - Upplev 1700-talet" (L'Esprit - Experience the 18th century) ment to take place in Mönsterås, Sweden July 7th to July 11th 2020. However the entire festival was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.
It is written for STB soloists, SATB and treble choir with string orchestra and piano. It can also be performed by a quartet of SATB soloists where the alto then sings the part of the treble choir. 

In lack of a real recording of the work, you are here presented with the midi from my MuseScore program. 

The cantata consists of five movements:

1. Ouverture 
2. Recitative (Tenor solo)
3. Tempo di minuetto (SATB choir with bass solo and treble choir) 
4. Aria (Soprano solo)
5. Choir (SATB) 

The Ouverture is a theme and variations piece with a hint of a Baroque overture, due to the fast and contrapuntal third variation. 

The Recitative, in short, greets the audience and asks the question what music would be without a listening audience. 

The Tempo di minuetto and the aria that follows is the very heart of this work. 
In the third movement the bass soloist sings about his sorrows of having to sing his melodies all on his own and how it makes them all turn into small elegies. 
The SATB choir joins him in his complaints but the treble choir tries to give a different perspective saying that nothing should ever stop you from singing and that there is value in singing even if noone ever hears your song.

In the Aria the soprano explains how she always lets her emotions out through song whether they are good or bad and that singing takes away all her doubts.

Finally the cantata ends by encouraging the audience to follow the sopranos example and to sing from the heart even if you sing out of tune. 
It all ends with a fortissimo cry-out of the works title "From the heart, sing!"

Av hjärtat, sjung! in Bb Major Op. 22 for soloist, SATB, descant choir, string quartet and piano

This is my second piano sonata "Joie de vivre" in C Major.
It consists of four movements in the following sequence:

1. Allegro molto (Sonata-allegro form) 
2. Scherzo (Scherzo and Trio) 
3. Andante semplice (ABA form) 
4. Allegro giocoso (Seven part Rondo form)

This is my second "Grand Sonata", following my Violin sonata No. 1, including both a dance movement and a slow movement, in this case the second movement is a Scherzo.

The first movement starts with a scalar motif inspired by Maria Hester Park's C Major sonata op. 7, but whereas she uses the scalar figure to develop a very fluent lyrical theme in the style Mozart I am more influenced by Ludwig van Beethoven and Joseph Haydn in the exposition, with its short contrasting phrases and sudden shifts in dynamics. The development following is however in pure Mozart in style starting in the tonic minor and moving through g minor and D Major before cadencing in A Major and then moving back through a dramatic passage over the circle of fifths. 

The second movement is an a minor Scherzo which owes its opening figure to the piano concerto of Robert Schumann, but what follows is a typically classical Scherzo, with a C Major Trio section with much reminicense of the style of Haydn's Minuets. 

The third movement, in F major, is written in a mostly two voice texture influenced by the figured bass style of the Baroque (some have told me they get a "feeling" if not a direct influence of Domenico Scarlatti). 

The last movement is in a Haydnesque contrapuntal style with formal influences from the seven part rondos of Sofia Dussek. Influences of Muzio Clementi are also strong in this movement which rounds off the sonata by stating its three themes in the same key order as the previous movements (A is in C Major as the first movement, B in A minor as the second and C in F major as the third movement was).

The work is dedicated to my wife Desiree with much love. 

Piano Sonata No. 2 "Joie de vivre" in C major Op. 23 (complete)

I am a music teacher at Oskarshams Folkhögskola, where I teach classical singing, composition, music theory and chamber music. 
I am also a singer with primarily art songs on my repertoire, a hobby composer and poet and a founding member of the Mönsterås Jazz and Chamber Music Society.
I studied composition at Ingesund College of Music and Baroque counterpoint at Uppsala University and mostly write vocal music for song and piano, and/or choir but eventually compose for other instruments and ensembles as well.
I have been called "a radiant talent in finding the essentials in different musical styles" (Arvika Nyheter, December 4, 2006) and regional news paper Barometern wrote that my music shows "good insight in choice of melody and harmonic part writing" (September 25, 2012).
My music has been performed in Austria, Canada, England, Germany, Sweden and USA.

Notable works are:

"Three nocturnal Songs Op. 11", song cycle of three songs for soprano and piano. Premiered by Cecilia Alrikson and Natalja Shakova in Oskarshamn, Sweden in 2018.

"Night songs Op. 6", song cycle of five songs for baritone and piano. Premiered by Anthony Schneider and Rosemary Barnes in Vienna, Austria in 2013.

"Ave Maria - String quartet in d minor Op. 12", string quartet in three movements. Published by Gusthold Music, USA in 2020.

"Av hjärtat, sjung! Op. 22", cantata in five movements for STB soloists, SATB and childrens choir, string quartet and piano. Comissioned for the opening concert of the four day festival "L'Esprit - upplev 1700-talet" (L'Esprit - Experience the 18th century) in 2020.

"Joie de vivre - Piano sonata No. 2" Op. 23, sonata in four movements for solo piano. Composed in 2020.

"Jaktsonaten - Violin sonata No. 1 Op. 13", sonata in four movements for violin and piano. Composed in 2016.
 
I have been published by:

Gusthold Music Publisher (www.gustholdmusic.com) 
- String quartet in D minor "Ave Maria Op. 12" (May 2020)

Flauto d'Amore Editions
(www.flautodamoreproject.com)
- Danza, for Flauto d'Amore or C-flute (June 2020)

Psalmportalen (www.psalmportalen.se)
- Three congregational hymns (Herre Gud, vi lovar dig, När det känns som att allt ljus försvinner and Ett litet barn, Marias son) (Summer 2017)

I hope you will find something here to listen to that you will enjoy!

Photography for my profile image: Anna Broette

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