This is a selection of my songs that span almost a decade and a half from the very beginning of my composition of art songs in 2007-2008 (Solig stig är full av under is the oldest song represented here) until the present day. Almost all of my song cycles are at least represented in part and three of them in full (Three nocturnal songs, Fünf Frühlingslieder and Night songs). 
In some cases I sing myself in the recordings, other times recordings have been made by friends, commissioners or dedicatees in Sweden, England and Canada. I sincerely hope you will enjoy them as the art song and the Lied are very close to my heart. 

Art songs by David Unger

Baritone: Hannes Öberg
Piano: Erik Lissel

This is a song cycle based on the five poems from William Blake's Songs of innocence that deal with themes of the night. 
The songs are arranged in the following sequence:

1. Night
2. A cradle song
3. A dream
4. The little boy lost
5. The little boy found

Recorded live in Sunne kyrka, August 12 2013.

The Night songs is the first larger work I wrote after finishing College. They were written during an intensive week in September 2012 and became my first larger work to be performed abroad (in Vienna by Anthony Schneider and Rosemary Barnes in May 2013) as well as the first larger work to recieve multiple performances.
The songs were originally written for tenor Martin Lindau and pianist Rasmus Andersson, both of whom I studied with at Ingesund College of Music. Unfortunately they have yet to perform the piece.
Instead the Swedish premiere (heard here) was held by baritone Hannes Öberg and pianist Erik Lissel as part of their program "Sånger ur natten" (Songs of the night).
They have also been mentioned in the publication Blake - An Illustrated Quarterly (vol. 49 No. 4, 2016).

Night Songs Op. 6 (complete)

This is the second 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 by: Johann Wolfgang von Goehte
Music by: David Unger

Baritone and piano: David Unger

Sechs Goethe-Lieder Op. 14 No. 2 - Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt

Recorded live in Döderhults kyrka, New Years Eve 2013. Baritone and piano by David Unger.

Ave Maria for song and piano (text and music by David Unger)

This is an early Art song (one of my first) composed in 2008, when I had a period when I indulged myself very much in the poetry of Pär Lagerkvist - one of Sweden's seven nobel laureates in litterature.

Solig Stig Är Full Av Under (Music by: David Unger and text by: Pär Lagerkvist)

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

Till Detta Har Jag Ofta Märke Lagt(Music by: David Unger, text by: Verner von Heidenstam)

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

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

Duo Freya performing Stjärnöga from my song cycle "I drömmarnas spår" in Robertson-Wesley United Church, Edmonton Canada on November 2nd 2013.
Cindy Koistinen, soprano
Heidi Saario, piano

"I drömmarnas spår", a cycle of five songs set to poems by Bo Bergman, is my own take on the romantic song cycle about the lonely wanderer who leaves home to seek a better future.

I drömmarnas spår Op. 7 No. 1 - Stjärnöga

Duo Freya performing Adagio from my song cycle "I drömmarnas spår" in Robertson-Wesley United Church, Edmonton Canada on November 2nd 2013.
Cindy Koistinen, soprano
Heidi Saario, piano

"I drömmarnas spår", a cycle of five songs set to poems by Bo Bergman, is my own take on the romantic song cycle about the lonely wanderer who leaves home to seek a better future. In this the third song the wanderer has found a resting place by the water and just rests listening to the waves and watching the clouds fly by "like white swans". 

I drömmarnas spår Op. 7 No. 3 - Adagio, for song and piano

David Unger, baritone and Natalja Shakova, piano performing Sie liebten sich beide at the annual teachers concert at Oskarshamns Folkhögskola on October 1st 2013.
Swedish translation (second verse) by David Unger

Sie liebten sich beide (Music by: David Unger, text by: Heinrich Heine)

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)

Featuring: Marie-Claire op ten Noort, mezzo-soprano and The Kingfisher Ensemble String Quartet.

Intet är som väntanstider, for soprano and string quartet

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)

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)

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

Art songs by David Unger

David Unger | Composer