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)

almostdances (2022) is a set of virtuosic etudes for string quartet in three continuous movements. Each brims with rhythm and motion, but they are askew—crooked, twisted, like a lopsided dance. Although each instrument’s part is quite individually virtuosic, for me these almostdances are studies in collective virtuosity: they musically foreground the attunement of performers to one another, and use a challenging musical language which requires a heightened level of artistic teamwork. The first is a furiously hocketed dance which begins to stutter on top of itself; the second is a chaotic textural swirl which dissolves into white light; and the third foregrounds the cellist in an expressive, shifting landscape. Full of light, color, and motion, these three miniatures are like tiny portals into another world.

almostdances for string quartet was written for the Quatuor Diotima as part of their 2021-22 residency at the University of Chicago.

Image: Pablo Picasso, "The Dance"

almostdances (2022) for string quartet: i. interlocking dance

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

Serendipity was written during my time as a fellow composer at the Bang On A Can Summer Festival in July/August 2019 in North Adams, Massachussets, USA. One of my personal goals when going to the festival was to write a short chamber piece inspired by the voyage and get it performed there. 

The word serendipity means an unplanned, fortunate discovery; a happy accident. One day at the festival somebody who now, by a beautiful accident, is a close friend of mine, brought this word up in a conversation and I fell in love with it. There are things we can plan out and control and there are things that happen as a by-product of our actions. So often the unplanned, lucky accidents seem much more significant and meaningful than the initial reason for doing something. The three weeks I spent in North Adams were full of beautiful accidents each of whom have fuelled this piece with joy and inspiration.

Performed by:

Kyla-Rae Ashworth (flute)
Phoebe Bognár (alto flute)
Ellie Harrison (viola)
Francesca Masel (violoncello)

recording of a rehearsal in December 2019 in Brisbane, Australia

Serendipity

Matīss Čudars

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