Choral Music

Instrumental works

tracks composed in 1995-1997 by Christian Hildebrandt (casdijan hilc) with a Sound Galaxy 16 sound card on a Windows 3.11 PC, 66 MHz CPU

Electronic compositions by Casdijan Hilc

CD indspilning fra premieren på den nye messekomposition "Forvaltere af den Solbeskinnede Virkelighed", med tekst af Ursula Andkjær Olsen og musik af Christian Hildebrandt

En messekomposition er kirkemusikkens svar på en symfoni. Et musikværk i syv satser som følger højmessens liturgi i en stor, sammenhængende kunstnerisk form.

“Forvaltere af den Solbeskinnede Virkelighed” er en ny dansk messe, som fortæller en historie om menneskets forhold til virkeligheden, om vores vilkår i verden og om vores ansvar for den. Historien er vævet ind i højmessens traditionelle form, fornyende men også bevidst og i dialog med traditionen. Værket trækker tråde til den store kirkemusikalske tradition for messekomposition, men er alligevel helt anderledes end nogen tidligere messekomposition.

Ursula Andkjær Olsens nye messetekst er på en gang overraskende og nyskabende i kirkelig sammenhæng og samtidig refererende til såvel højmessens liturgi som centrale temaer i bibelske fortællinger.

Ordene blander et nyt poetisk sprog med brudstykker fra den latinske messe, og det høres i musikken, som både er iørefaldende melodisk og komplekst flerstemmig. Sådan bliver der i værket en spænding mellem det ofte frapperende nye og det helt traditionelle.

Spændingen viser sig dog som en indbyrdes rummelighed i det nye og det gamle, som gør de to ord-verdener uløseligt forbundne – ligesom fortidens, nutidens og fremtidens mennesker alle er uløseligt forbundne som beboere i den verden, vi overtager fra hinanden.

Forvaltere af den Solbeskinnede Virkelighed, Introitus

Forvaltere af den Solbeskinnede Virkelighed, Kyrie

Forvaltere af den Solbeskinnede Virkelighed, Gloria

tracks created in 1997 by Christian Hildebrandt (casdijan hilc) with a Sound Galaxy 16 sound card on a Windows 3.11 PC, 66 MHz CPU.

lullaby

casdijan hilc

ballad

Sarons Rose is a choral piece commissioned and composed in 2018 for Kristkirkens Kor in Copenhagen.

Højsangen 2.1-2 / Esajas 35.1-2

Jeg er Sarons rose, dalenes lilje
ødemark juble og blomstre med fryd,
midt iblandt torne, frodigt som rosen,
og juble, ja, juble med fryd.
Jeg er Sarons rose, dalenes lilje.

Sarons Rose

Composed in 1997 on my first computer featuring a basic sound card and a simple sequenzer software. Inspired by airplane engines malfunctioning. Recorded once on cassette tape, but recording lost in Warszawa Autumn 1998.

Fun fact: despite having been composed in 1997 in a primitive sequanzer program using modified midi-sounds from a computer sound card from 1993 this track was rejected by the distribution platform Amuse in January 2025 as the platform misthought it for having been created with use of AI.

hangar

Min sjæl lov Herren
Som græs er menneskets dage
Men herrens miskundhed

Men Herrens miskundhed

Min sjæl lov Herren

Transportation for two pianos, composed in 2014 by Christian Hildebrandt.

Transportation

Composed 1992 by Christian Hildebrandt as Prelude V-VI from the collection of 24 Preludes for piano.

Præludium V+VI

Composed 2007 by Christian Hildebrandt, based on the song "Ilma on kaunis" from 2004.

Intermezzo for Alto Saxophone and Piano

Composed 2023 as sound track for the podcast "Whisky snak"
(https://open.spotify.com/show/1nFfRgaLdHRNkfutwnLvQp?si=38c05cd4686240e3)

Three preludes for piano composed 1992-1993 by Christian Hildebrandt

Three Preludes

Christian Hildebrandt: Tempora (2025)

Tempora er en musikalsk refleksion over tid – ikke som lineær fremdrift, men som samtidighed, vekselvirkning og skiften. Værket er skrevet for 10 instrumenter og består af tre satser: Tremor temporis, Saltatio temporis og Tremor finalis. Det åbner med en skælven – en rystelse i tiden – hvor forskellige tidslige lag begynder at strømme ind i og gennem hinanden. Denne bevægelse fører over i en dans – Saltatio temporis – hvor forskellige tidsaldre, måske endda forskellige musikhistoriske epoker, flettes sammen i en slags overlejret samtidighed. Til sidst vender vi tilbage til skælven i Tremor finalis, hvor tiden opløses og slippes.

Musikken veksler mellem det intense og det transparente, det rytmiske og det flydende. Gennem hele værket arbejdes der med spejlinger, forvredne gentagelser og forskydninger – som om tiden ikke er ét sted, men mange på én gang.

Tempora er skrevet på bestilling til Ensemble Felix og uropførtes ved to koncerter i juni 2025. Det er en rejse ind i tidens stoflighed og en invitation til at mærke, hvordan fortid og fremtid kan være nærværende i nuet.

***

Christian Hildebrandt: Tempora (2025)

Tempora is a musical reflection on time – not as linear progression, but as simultaneity, interplay, and transformation. The work is scored for 10 instruments and consists of three movements: Tremor temporis, Saltatio temporis, and Tremor finalis. It opens with a tremor – a shaking of time – where different temporal layers begin to stream into and through one another. This movement leads into a dance – Saltatio temporis – in which different ages, perhaps even distinct epochs of music history, are interwoven in a kind of superimposed simultaneity. Finally, we return to the tremor in Tremor finalis, where time dissolves and is released.

The music shifts between intensity and transparency, rhythmic structure and fluidity. Throughout the piece, there is a play with mirrorings, distorted repetitions, and displacements – as if time were not in one place, but in many places at once.

Tempora was commissioned by Ensemble Felix and premiered in two concerts in June 2025. It is a journey into the materiality of time and an invitation to sense how past and future can be present in the now.

Tempora

Composed in 1997 on my first computer featuring a basic sound card and a simple sequenzer software. Recorded once on cassette tape, but recording lost in Warszawa Autumn 1998.

bell, guns & organ

Ps. 138: Jeg vil prise dig, Herre

Sanctus on St Stephen”s Day

Techno fairy tale, composed and recorded in Copenhagen 1995 by Christian Hildebrandt.

teknoeventyr

“Afstande” is a rare collection of choral settings of four poems from Henrik Nordbrandt’s 1973 volume Omgivelser. In 1997 I was granted Nordbrandt’s personal permission to set the texts to music – an exceptional privilege – resulting in a cycle that transforms the poet’s themes of distance and memory into sound.

Siden i går

De samme værelser

Afstande

Narkose

electronic and possible instrumental composition for recorder ensemble and fretless bass, composed 1999 remembering a short, disturbing poem I wrote in 1991. the original sounds are in the present edition replaced by new sounds. ask for more information about this track and the score, which has never been performed by instruments.

dumpe stød

"ode til tiden, der kommer og danser", komponeret af Christian Hildebrandt i august 1999 til Aventura Kammerkor som en del af korets markering af årtusindskiftet. Teksten er et originaldigt af Kasper Nefer Olsen, der tager udgangspunkt i den antikke sapphiske strofe og reflekterer over tidens væsen – dens stilhed, dens uophørlige bevægelse og dens dans gennem menneskers erindring og drømme.

Musikken er tænkt som en meditativ rejse, hvor koret bevæger sig fra enkel, næsten hymnelignende stilhed til mere komplekse og bølgende forløb. Rytmen er præget af ro og langsom fremdrift, men afbrydes af glimt af intensitet, hvor tiden selv træder frem som en dansende kraft. Kontrasterne mellem stille klangflader og pulserende bevægelser spejler spændingen mellem fortid, nutid og fremtid, og værket kredser om spørgsmålet: er det os, der former tiden, eller er det tiden, der danser i os?

Værket varer ca. seks minutter og er skrevet for blandet kor a cappella (SATB). Det søger at fastholde et øjeblik ved tærsklen til en ny tid, men samtidig pege på tidens evige strøm, hvor mennesket altid står midt i bevægelsen – lyttende, ventende, håbende.

***
"ode to time, that comes and dances" was composed by Christian Hildebrandt in August 1999 for the chamber choir Aventura as part of their celebration of the new millennium. The text is an original poem by Kasper Nefer Olsen, inspired by the ancient Sapphic stanza, reflecting on the nature of time – its stillness, its ceaseless movement, and its dance through human memory and dreams.

The music unfolds as a meditative journey, moving from simple, hymn-like stillness into more complex, flowing textures. The rhythm is marked by calm and gradual progression, interrupted by flashes of intensity where time itself seems to appear as a dancing force. Contrasts between quiet soundscapes and pulsing movement mirror the tension between past, present, and future, circling around the question: do we shape time, or does time dance within us?

The work lasts about six minutes and is scored for mixed choir a cappella (SATB). It seeks to capture a moment at the threshold of a new era while pointing toward the eternal stream of time, in which humanity always finds itself—listening, waiting, and hoping.

ode til tiden

Christian Hildebrandt: Stabat Mater
Composed in the autumn 1994
First performed November 18, 1994, in Hellig Kors Kirke, Nørrebro, Copenhagen
About the track:
"This is a live cassette tape recording from 18 November 1994 at Hellig Kors Kirke at Nørrebro, Copenhagen. My debut as choral composer, 18 singers performing my Stabat Mater. The event was a midnight mass, liturgically supported by notorious Erik Bock, who at that occasion told us that "the church actually is a submarine, and right now we're at the bottom of the sea!""

Please like and share the track if you enjoy what you hear.

Stabat mater dolorosa
juxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.
Cuius animam gementem,
contristatam et dolentem
pertransivit gladius.
O quam tristis et afflicta
fuit illa benedicta,
mater Unigeniti!
Quae moerebat et dolebat,
pia Mater, dum videbat
nati poenas inclyti.
Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio?
Quis non posset contristari
Christi Matrem contemplari
dolentem cum Filio?
Pro peccatis suae gentis
vidit Iesum in tormentis,
et flagellis subditum.
Vidit suum dulcem Natum
moriendo desolatum,
dum emisit spiritum.
Jacobo di Todi 12th Century



Stabat Mater

Motet for Annunciation. Composed February 1997.

1999

Maria hun var en jomfru ren

Composed in autumn 1997, conceived as a "movie without pictures" about traffical disorder in the lost DDR.

Rollover 97 DDR Symphony

Composed by Christian Hildebrandt January 2003

Magnificat I

Composed by Christian Hildebrandt, October 2001

Ps. 37, 9: adflictus sum et humiliatus sum nimis rugiebam a gemitu cordis mei.

Overs. 1931, Slm. 38, 9: jeg er lammet og fuldkommen knust, jeg skriger i Hjertets Vaande.

Transl. Ps. 38, 6: I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

Adflictus sum

Composed by Christian Hildebrandt November 2004

Alma redemptoris mater

Composed by Christian Hildebrandt December 2001

Ubi caritas

Lux aeterna

Composed by Christian Hildebrandt 2001-2005. Recording from performance by Ensemble Vest in Kristkirken 14 January 2005

Oculi omnium

Christian Hildebrandt is a Danish composer born in Dragør in 1967, specializing in choral music. His compositions blend Renaissance melodies with modal and late-Romantic harmonies, creating new connections between text and music. Hildebrandt's choral music is inspired by symbolism mixed with Renaissance techniques and a late-Romantic expression. He often uses texts to tell stories on multiple levels by adding new meanings.
As Casdijan Hilc, he composes electronic and experimental music, often with repetitive melodic lines.
Choral music (Christian Hildebrandt): Works include Stabat Mater, Ubi caritas, and Credo. He composed "Forvaltere af den solbeskinnede virkelighed," a mass commissioned by eight churches in Copenhagen
Electronic music (Casdijan Hilc): Characterized by a floating style with repetitive elements and gradually sliding layers, like clouds in different atmospheric layers. He experimented with computer music in the art group "PåKant" in the late 1990s.
Hildebrandt co-founded Komvest - Vesterbro Komponistforening, where he has organized many concerts1. His music can be found on YouTube and SoundCloud1. A concert series is planned for 2025 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the premiere of his Stabat Mater1.
Some of Hildebrandt's works in more detail:
Adflictus sum (2001) is a piece based on Psalm 37, 9, with a translation from Psalm 38, 6, expressing being troubled and bowed down.
Alma Redemptoris Mater (2004) is a piece that includes a reference to the hymn "Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden" and expresses the hope of rising from a fall.
Ego flos campi (2024) sets text from the Song of Songs.
Oculi omnium (2005) is based on Psalm 144. 15,16 and reflects on the provision of food at the right time.
The mass "Forvaltere af den solbeskinnede virkelighed" (Stewards of the Sunlit Reality) is a work with lyrics by Ursula Andkjær Olsen that blends traditional mass texts with personal and subjective expressions, emphasizing humanity's responsibility for the earth. It was commissioned by eight Copenhagen churches in 2010 and was performed in connection with the international Earth Hour event.
The mass includes traditional mass sections: introitus, kyrie, gloria, credo, sanctus-benedictus, and agnus dei.
The last movement of the mass, exitus, changes from an "I" to a "we" and focuses on the need to care for the earth.
The text of the mass is described as simple with few elements so the listeners can absorb the words.
The mass also incorporates a system of four through-composed tone rows, two of which are technical inversions of the other two.
The piece's Facebook page can be found at www.facebook.com/solbeskinnede.
In addition to his choral and electronic music, Hildebrandt has also written instrumental works, including two string quartets, chamber music, orchestral music, organ pieces and piano music. He also has a background in musicology, mathematics, and physics. He has taught music theory at the University of Copenhagen and conducted several choirs. Since 2014 he has served as a high school teacher in mathematics, physics and music.

Christian Hildebrandt

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