One of my first experiments in algorithmic improvisation. Using an arpeggiator of sorts I've developed in Max/MSP, I control the dynamics and chord voicing with the angle of my iPhone, while using the mouse to select chords and alter the ostinatos that are looping. I haven't done any post-production on this, so it's not a composition but a raw, unvarnished improvisation, complete with awkward moments that don't really work and many more moments that I absolutely adore... I'm curious to hear what you all think!

Improvisation

Lullaby orchestral (berceuse)(original soundtrack of "ALLO")

Enigma (2024) for wind ensemble with optional organ

performed by the Michigan State University Wind Symphony, Michael Gabriel, conductor

Enigma was originally written for brass choir and organ for the dedication of the Red Cedar Organ in the Michigan State University Alumni Chapel. This version was created for my friend Henry Dorn and the St. Olaf Band. It was awarded the 2024 National Band Association William D. Revelli Memorial Prize.


Enigma comes from a Greek word that means “to speak in riddles,” and in this piece, the riddle—or theme—is revealed gradually. The theme comes from the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, which is one of my favorite pieces of music, and, once the theme is revealed, it is repeated cyclically with 21 variations, just like in Bach’s original. This piece is dedicated to my former teacher, José-Luis Maúrtua, a composer, theorist, conductor, and teacher with whom I studied at Central Michigan University. José-Luis was an extraordinary musician and teacher who was tirelessly dedicated to his students and to pushing them to do their best. I am forever grateful for the lessons I learned from him, and my music and my life are far better for having known him. Unfortunately, he was taken from this earth far too young—at the age of 57—by pancreatic cancer in the spring of 2022. I miss him dearly, and this music is for him.

For more information: https://davidbiedenbender.com/work/enigma-2/

Enigma

Letra: Rafael Moraira
Música, orquestación y producción: Rafael Serrano

English
11th century. Ishbiliya. The Seville of taifas, the "flat city", also poetically called Alquivira (The Great).
Legend has it that the Poet King Almotamid or Almutamid, trying to spin some verses on the banks of the Rio Grande (Guad-al-Quivir) could not find the foot of one of them:
"The breeze turns the river into a chainmail coat..."
When, faced with his poetic blockage, a female voice behind him, hidden in the vegetation of the river, concluded:
"There is no better chainmail than the one frozen by the river."
It was the slave Itimad, called Romaiquiya, who would become his beloved Queen in an idyllic taifa. Until the invasion of the Almoravids banished him forever to Ahmad, near Morocco, where, faithful and in love, Itimad followed her until her last days.
You can visit her splendid Mausoleum there. And perhaps you will hear those verses that today are... nothing.
Like almost everything that was that Great City.

Español
Siglo XI. Ishbiliya. La Sevilla de taifas, la "ciudad llana", también llamada poéticamente Alquivira (La Grande).
Cuenta le leyenda que el Rey Poeta Almotamid o Almutamid, tratando de hilar unos versos a orillas del Río Grande (Guad-al-Quivir) no encontraba el pie a uno de ellos:
“La brisa convierte al río en una cota de malla…” 
Cuando, ante su bloqueo poetico, una voz femenina a sus espaldas, oculta en la vegetación del río, concluyó:
“Mejor cota no se halla como la congele el río.”
Era la esclava Itimad, llamada la Romaiquiya, que llegaría a ser su amada Reina en una taifa idílica. Hasta que la invasión de los almorávides lo desterró para siempre a Ahmad, cerca de Marruecos, a donde, fiel y enamorada, la siguió hasta sus últimos días Itimad.
Podéis visitar allí su espléndido Mausoleo. Y quizás oigáis esos versos que hoy son... nada.
Como casi todo lo que fue aquella Gran Ciudad.


LETRA:

Ay, Alquivira!.
El viento hacía del agua,
ay, Alquivira,
rizos de nácar.
Almotamid divagaba:
"Yo te quisiera hilvanar 
 en una cota de malla,
 y el río no se deja hilar".
Ay, Alquivira!.
Si el relente te helara...
Ay, Alquivira!.
Ay, mi Alquivira!.
Oyó una voz a su espalda:
"Cómo lo quieres helar
 si la calor de Sevilla 
 son los ojos de Itimad?".

Ay, Alquivira!.
Qué nos queda ya?.
Ni casi río ni rey
ni el sol de Romaiquiya...

Ay, Alquivira!
El tiempo hace del agua,
ay, Alquivira,
rizos de nada.
Almotamid cada mayo
de las prisiones de Ahmad
va a Alquivira de la mano
del fantasma de Itimad.
Oye una voz la Giralda:
"Cómo te quieres helar
 si la calor de Sevilla 
 son los ojos de Itimad?".

¡Ay! Alquivira

TORTURA musique de comédie musicale

“From Here to Eternity” is an emotional and cinematic instrumental piece with lush strings and woodwinds to evoke a deep sense of reflection and longing. Ideal for moments of introspection, storytelling, or visual journeys.
🎧 https://hypeddit.com/9f7767

From Here to Eternity

A true loves kiss

This section of the suite gives voice to a gradual collapse. 
It begins with a distress call— two flutes sounding the alarm— and the orchestra rises in a surge of defiance. But slowly, disorder seeps into harmony, and unity begins to fracture. The trombones, the trumpets, the woodwinds, the harp — each desperately striving to find unity with the strings. Note by note, the ensemble dissolves into despair, an orchester unraveling in sorrow's embrace. At last, beneath the faint tremolo of the timpani, the music comes to a complete and haunting standstill.

Pandemic Suite – 05. Demise

We welcome Paulette Verlée, Brussels-based composer and pianist, as the newest voice in our Woman Muse series.

Her debut piece with ad21 is a beautifully melancholic piano work that unfolds with calm elegance and emotional depth.
Delicate and cinematic, it creates a soothing atmosphere where sound becomes memory, and silence holds meaning.

Known for her poetic and immersive compositions, Paulette blurs the lines between neoclassical, ambient, and visual storytelling, crafting music that feels like a soundtrack for something unseen but deeply felt.

Woman Muse Series

Alba

Listen

Palomitas (Animation Short) - Pop Marley and His Life Journey

SEVERANCE (concerto for saxophone quartet and wind ensemble)

Premiere: January 10, 2020, U.S. Navy Band Saxophone Quartet, Captain Kenneth C. Collins, conductor :: International Saxophone Symposium :: George Mason Center for the Arts, Fairfax, VA

U.S. Navy Band Saxophone Quartet

Jonathan Yanik, soprano saxophone
Patrick Martin, alto saxophone
David Babich, tenor saxophone
Dana Booher, baritone saxophone

SEVERANCE was commissioned by the United States Navy Band. The title for the piece and for the second and third movements come from a linked collection of poetry called SEVERANCE by my friend Robert Fanning, who has been the muse for several of my recent works. Robert’s poetry often gives voice to my own emotional world in a way that is deeply important to me. In Severance, the main characters, two marionettes, Professor and Grief, sever their wires and escape the play and the theatre in Winterland in “search for a life untethered and authentic, crossing from day into night, from wood into flesh, from wakefulness into dream, from ice into thaw. Severance sings of a way—through the narrows of time and body—toward healing.” (Severance by Robert Fanning, Salmon Poetry).

In the first movement, Clouds of Remembering, I introduce all of the musical material for the piece, but it is often shrouded and ephemeral, always fleeting, like the distant memory of something or someone lost.

The second movement, Every Way Through Hurts, is dedicated to my friend Jovanni-Rey Verceles de Pedro. Jovanni and I met at the University of Michigan while completing our graduate work. He was a pianist, professor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. After graduation, we both moved to Idaho—Jovanni taught piano at the University of Idaho, and I taught music composition and theory at Boise State University. He recorded my Rhapsody for solo piano on his first studio album, and I had planned to write him a new piece, but Jovanni died suddenly in the summer of 2019 while traveling with the global nonprofit organization he founded. When I heard about his passing it took my breath away. At 36 years old—a young, hopeful, energetic musician, a person with whom I felt a kinship and a related musical path—it just didn’t seem possible that he was gone. The outpouring of grief from his friends and family was extraordinary—he had connected with so many people through music. There is no way around grief—every way through it hurts—but very gradually, the waves of grief become smaller and grow farther apart, and we come to know that we can weather them. This music is for Jovanni, and the piano plays a prominent role, often gently tracing the saxophone solo lines like some strange shadow or echo.

The third movement, Follow the threads: Unstrung, begins with metaphorical darkness. The saxophonists play slow melodic lines—threads—that are passed around the quartet and are eventually passed to the ensemble as the quartet’s music transforms into raindrops and then into a peculiar dance. I imagine the marionettes dancing, awkwardly at first, recently untethered and free from their strings, but becoming assured and ecstatic as they dance through grief, through their scars, through the waves, and toward healing.

Robert Fanning’s Severance is published by Salmon Poetry and you can find out more about his work at www.robertfanning.wordpress.com.

www.davidbiedenbender.com

Severance – I. Clouds Of Remembering

Violinist, pianist, chamber and orchestral musician, who devotes himself to composing neo-classical music. 
He weaves a gentle, emotional orchestral language, that speaks about live and touches the heart. 
He captures these ephemeral, timeless, and moving moments, transcribing them with devotion to sound and recording them in the sound studio.

His music creations are a testament to the value of retreat,
where silence gives birth to the most profound expressions, contrapuncting the noise of our world.

Thanks for your kind listening and commenting !
Helmut / HELMUTunes

Pandemic Suite – 05. Demise

HELMUTunes

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