These are five of my personal favourites among my works: Three nocturnal songs Op. 11 (2015), Piano Sonata No. 2 "Joie de vivre" Op. 23 (2020), String Quartet No. 2 Op. 32 (2024), Sonata for solo violin "In stile barocco" Op. 19 (2019) and Magnificat for mezzo soprano, SAB and strings Op. 28 (2023).

Five important works

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

This is my second string quartet, composed in September 2024.
"Den grälsjuka" means The quarrelsome and refers to the conflict between the violins at the beginning of the first movement, when the second violin tries to "correct" the phrase endings of the first violin, who only after eight measures follows suit and does what the second violin (and in the fifth measure even the viola) tries to get it to do.

It is composed in three movements:

1. Allegretto con spirito
2. Adagio sostenuto
3. Tempo di minuetto

String quartet No. 2 in A Major "Den grälsjuka" Op. 32 (midi recording)

This is a Baroque style sonata for unaccompanied violin in three movements:

1. Allegro molto
2. Sarabande
3. Gigue

This is by far the smallest of my (to date) five sonatas and began with the second movement which was actually originally composed to complement the finale of my G Major sonata (before I had revised the movement to include it in that sonata instead) as a second movement, but I found them to be to different in style and the Sarabande lay unused for three years before I found an early effort to write an Etude for solo violin which I chose to heavily revise into what is now the opening Allegro first movement. The sonata was finally put together in October 2019 when I composed the Gigue finale. 

Sonata for solo violin "In stile barocco" in D Major Op. 19 (midi recording)

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 (live performance)

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 (midi recording)

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

Five important works

David Unger | Composer