Riddle Song

pf. Ensemble Modern
cond. Enno Poppe
premiere, Frankfurt, March 2020
contains a field recording by Vincent Duseigne of veal calves being separated from their mothers 
(2015, https://archive.org/details/aporee_30571_35170)
art: Egon Schiele, "Sawmill" (1913)

We are all okay

performed and recorded by L'Instant Donné

musica spolia (quartet version)

section X from Divisio Spiralis (2019)

JACK Quartet

February 25th-26th, 2021, Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, New York
Mastering engineer: Ryan Streber
Editing/Mixing: Christopher Botta and Christopher Otto

Catherine Lamb

Divisio Spiralis X (2019)

The compositions on this cd are inspired by time, and the relativity of it. The music moves and stretches, compresses, speeds up and down, sometimes even all at the same time. Each composition deals with time in a different way, from a poly-rhythmical canon to a piece based on the rhythm of a bouncing ball bouncing on the floor, where each note follows the next one faster and faster. Resulting in a collection of intricate etudes on time.

Loran Witteveen Trio - Boginda

Suite (2021)
world premiere, recorded at Wigmore Hall, July 2022

Explore Ensemble:
Taylor MacLennon, fl
Alex Roberts, cl
David López Ibáñez, vln
Morag Robertson, vla
Deni Teo, cello
Siwan Rhys, piano/kbd

Nicholas Moroz, audio recording/mixing

full video performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlpdFkvEdLo

co-commissioned by Wigmore Hall and Explore Ensemble, supported by Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation

art: Maria Sibylla Merian — ‘Pineapple and examples of five insects’, from Merian's Drawings of Surinam Insects (1701-5)

Prerecorded sounds utilise three public domain field recordings:
1. Sounds of a pier being demolished near the entrance to the Terminal Island Prison and Deportation Center, Los Angeles, US. Rec. Steven Rowell, 2012.
2. School children sing national anthem in the morning before class in Pokigron, Boven, Suriname. Rec. Gerrit Kalsbeek, 2000.
3. Jarred fruit flies trapped in an empty, unrinsed wine bottle, Tartu, Estonia. Rec. Patrick Tubin McGinley, 2011.

Suite

May song (2022)
six voices and prerecorded audio
Performed by Exaudi, at Exposure 2023, Milton Court, 22 May 23

Cressida Sharp, sop.
Jessica Gillingwater, mez-sop.
Tom Williams, counterten.
David de Winter, ten.
Michael Hickman, bari.
Simon Whiteley, bass

James Weeks, cond.

Text by Goethe (1771), trans. Lisa Jeschke & Lucy Beynon (in Jeschke, Anthology of Poems by Drunk Women, Materials, 2018 http://material-s.blogspot.com/2020/10/lisa-jeschke-anthology-of-poems-by.html.)

How beautiful shines 
To me, the nature! 
How the sun glows! 
How the mead smiles!

Blossoms penetrate 
From each branch 
And a thousand voices 
Out of the shrubbery

And joy, and joy 
From each breast. 
O earth, o sun,
O joy o lust!

O love, o love!
As golden, as beautiful 
As the morning clouds 
On those heights

You bless gloriously 
The fresh field
The blossoms’ steam 
The bountiful world.

O girl, girl
How I love you! 
Your eyes gaze! 
How you love me!

This is the way the lark loves 
Song and air
And morning flowers
The smell of heaven

How much I love you, 
My blood warmed
By you, for me, a youth, 
And joy and courage

For new songs
And dances
May you be happy eternally 
As long as you love me.

Prerecorded sounds include two field recordings of a wind turbine in Bernau bei Berlin, recorded by Peter Cusack, 2021.

Art: Unknown photographer, WT-Energiesystems Albertshof wind turbines, Bernau bei Berlin, c. 2020

Thanks to James Weeks and Exaudi, and to Paolo Carlotto and Nick Moroz for audio engineering assistance.

May song

longing is an aviary (2023) for orchestra
 
This work draws its title from Ross Gay’s poem “Because,” which depicts longing with an evocative catalogue of images which are quivering, luminous, and full of motion. I explore this same trembling effect in a series of tightly controlled, virtuosic dances for orchestra which spiral outwards from a single pitch. This music is driven by a kaleidoscopic sense of color, a process of refracting and unwinding, and a momentum which eventually builds into a frenzied, shimmering aviary of birds. longing is an aviary was written for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, conducted by Tim Weiss in Spring 2023.

Performed April 2023 by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and conductor Tim Weiss, Symphony Center, Chicago, IL. Mixed and mastered by Marc Alletag.

Special thanks to Jonathan McCormick and Anna Thompson

Image: 'Aviary' by Annie Davidson

longing is an aviary (2023) for orchestra

In Prayer takes its text from a moment of heightened drama in the Old Testament in which Miriam is suddenly struck with a fatal sickness. In desperation, Miriam’s brother Moses pleads to God with a humble, one-sentence prayer for healing, reciting the phrase, in Hebrew, “el na refa na la” (please God, heal her). I decided to set this text in three different ways in order to explore a myriad of approaches one might take to appeal to God at such an urgent moment. The outer movements (I. with devotion, III. with resolve) are more solemn and ritualistic, calling God forth with reverence and respect. The middle movement (II. with impatience), on the other hand, is agitated, frustrated, and cynical, riddled with desperation and disbelief.

In Prayer can be performed as a duo for singer (orig. mezzo) and violist, where the singer plays a scordatura guitar laid flat, and the violist plays a kick drum. In Prayer can also be performed as a quartet for singer, violist, guitarist, and percussionist. Contact aaron.i.levin@gmail.com for more information.

Elana Bell – voice
Brian Isaacs – viola
Matiss Cudars – guitar
Makana Medeiros – percussion

In Prayer: III. with resolve – for voice, viola, guitar, and percussion

performed by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble:
Tim Weiss - conductor
Alexander "Sasha" Ishov - flute, piccolo
Clayton Luckadoo - bass clarinet
Herdís Mjöll Guðmundsdóttir - violin
Otávio Manzano Kavakama - cello
Liam Kaplan - piano
Colin McCall - percussion

August 17, 2023, at the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Artwork: a fragment of "Group IX, No. 3, The Dove" by Hilma Af Klint.

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The work is in two movements - Fraying and Prolonged. The first presents a sonic object that gradually disintegrates. The second reframes this object and slows it down, so that the process of decay is frozen, and the object appears almost immortal. The work grew out of reflections on 1 Corinthians 15 and Jiang Zhi's Love Letters (2014). In Jiang Zhi's photographs, flowers are on fire, but are not harmed by the flames.

Alto Flute - Isobel Doughty
Oboe - Caitlin Heathcote
Clarinet in B flat 1 - Heather Ryall
Clarinet in B flat 2 - Julia Raga Pascual
Horn in F - Karen Starkman
Trumpet in B flat 1 - Catherine Pollit
Trumpet in B flat 2 - Thomas Thornton
Tenor trombone 1 - Samuel Dye
Tenor trombone 2 - Jake Jones
Harp - Teresa Raff
Piano - Ábel Misha Gille Esbenshade
Violin 1 - Kanon Miyashita, Tilman Fleig, Yuriko Matsuda, Zora Orfgen
Violin 2 - Camille Saïd, Anastasia Egorova Wise, Zoe Hodi
Viola - Michaela Bartošová, Jeremy Tonelli-Sippel
Violoncello - Lucy Neil, Pieter-Jan De Smet
Double bass - Jess Martin, Cole Morrison
Conductor - James Hoyle

Recorded in October 2018.

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Matīss Čudars

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