Name: Narkose by Christian Hildebrandt
Duration: 2 min 8 s
Description: “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.

from "Per Nørgård: Libra"

Adam Riis, tenor - Stefan Östersjö, guitar
Danish National Vocal Ensemble - Fredrik Malmberg, conductor

PER NØRGÅRD: Libra - IV. “Die Welten erhalten Welten“ / "Når jeg råber"

Per Nørgård is interviewed about his music (1984) by Roger Wright. Although only 52 at the time, he was already the pre-eminent Scandinavian composer since the death of Sibelius.

Per  Nørgård in Conversation about his music

A meditative track (short version) for vocals, harp, singing bowls, shanti and kalimba. Recorded at Royal Academy of Music, 2011.
Composed 2011.

Inner Movements (forkortet version)

Steingrímur Rohloff's Doppelgängerkonzert was premiered by Odense Symphony Orchestra with soloists Rafaell Altino and Lawrence Power, Thursday 2 February 2023.

Steingrímur Rohloff: Doppelgängerkonzert (excerpt)

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.

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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

“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.

Narkose

Från kulturnattskonserten i Storkyrkan 26 april 2025. Dirigent Martin Hellberg

MacMillan Data est mihi omnis potestas

Counter-tenor: Francesco Giusti 
2004
Ornanted version of a motet by late renaissance and early baroque composer, Claudio Monteverdi. 
Organ: Roberto Gini


Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) - Ego Flos Campi

Version for 8-part Choir and 8 instruments

Per Nørgård - Singe die Gärten

Premiere of NORD written for and performed by Ensemble Nordlys (2017)

NORD (uropførelse) 22-9-17 (mp3)

Orchestra piece for Copenhagen Phil

Written in 2010

BUBBLES

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.

Narkose

Christian Hildebrandt

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