Printed and/or performed works composed by Otto Martin Christensen

SHEET MUSIC available from FORTON MUSIC
http://www.fortonmusic.co.uk/product/sonata-2/
A sonata in three movements for clarinet and piano. Stylistically, the sonata draws on jazz impulses, while it structurally links to the classical tradition -- albeit with a certain post-modern playfulness. Thus, the three movements are called 'Kind of Blue', 'Kind of Chaconne' and 'Kind of Rondo'. The title of the first movement is of course a reference to the iconic Miles album, while the musical ideas of the movement (rather jazzy, like the title)are poured into a container which is heavily indebted to the classical sonata form. The 2nd and 3rd movements both have the same duality (jazzy ideas, classical structures).

Sonata for Clarinet & Piano - 3. 'Kind Of Rondo'

Sonata for Clarinet & Piano - 1. 'Kind Of Blue'

SHEET MUSIC available form FORTON MUSIC http://www.fortonmusic.co.uk/product/sonata-2/
A sonata in three movements for clarinet and piano. Stylistically, the sonata draws on jazz impulses, while it structurally links to the classical tradition -- albeit with a certain post-modern playfulness. Thus, the three movements are called 'Kind of Blue', 'Kind of Chaconne' and 'Kind of Rondo'. The title of the first movement is of course a reference to the iconic Miles album, while the musical ideas of the movement (rather jazzy, like the title)are poured into a container which is heavily indebted to the classical sonata form. The 2nd and 3rd movements both have the same duality (jazzy ideas, classical structures).

Sonata for Clarinet & Piano - 2. 'Kind Of Chaconne'

SHEET MUSIC available from FORTON MUSIC http://www.fortonmusic.co.uk/product/intermezzo/
A little piece for flute and piano, consisting of a slow introduction and conclusion with jazz ballad traits, and a lively, somewhat "French" middle section.

Intermezzo for Flute & Piano

An a cappella setting of a section of the Gloria part of the Latin Mass(slightly modified)for SATB choir + soprano and alto solo, made with Voices of Prague & Soloists of Prague within Notion 4.

"Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei; Filius Patris, Filius Matris, Filius Dei; Qui tollis, Qui tollis peccata mundi; Miserere, Miserere, Miserere nobis, Miserere, Miserere, Miserere nobis; Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei, Agnus Dei; Domine Deus, Miserere nobis, Amen Amen!"

Domine Deus

Sheet music available from Forton Music (https://fortonmusic.co.uk/product/rise-up/). 
The piece is inspired by (and contains a short quotation from) the famous choir from Händel's oratorio Judas Maccabeus: "See, the conqu'ring hero comes! Sound the trumpets! Beat the drums!..."

Rise Up! - Trumpet & Piano

Busy with non-musical task for a long time, I relaxed a little at the piano the other day and let my fingers run rather unconsciously across the keys, as I started to think of an interview with Joe Zawinul from the late 1970s (I believe), where he told that his compositions are made by turning on the tape recorder, improvising on the keyboard and transcribing his best ideas from the tape later on. I am classically trained and no jazz musician (even though I love jazz and tend to use jazz-like elements in my works), but I thought I might try out Zawinul’s compositional method the midi way, in order to see what ran out of my fingers, even if I am not primarily a piano player. Perhaps an efficient way to feed Notion (my preferred notation app)with a few descent musical ideas, I thought. My own aim is to make performable ’classical’ music, so my focus is normally on notation rather than on audio. Thus, making music via a midi controller has never been an important compositional method in my world, where I normally have a more cerebral approach to composing. But I wanted to try out a new approach, and I sat down at the piano, called up Notion 5 on my Mac, loaded the Ravenscroft VST piano plug-in from VIlabs, and improvised a short sequence (with the metronome in Notion turned off, in order to be able to play more freely). Then I used a few minutes to colorize the recorded piano improvisation with a soprano saxophone, an acoustic bass and a Glockenspiel, as well as adding some reverb. No more processing. All the work was done from within the notation window in a snap of time. Instant composing, so to speak. The messy notation that was generated is useless for other purposes, but I guess you could export the file as midi and tidy it up in a sequencer app, and then import it into Notion again, if you would like to use some of the musical ideas in a proper notation context. I have to look into this more closely.

Improvisation

A few bars made for testing how the Spitfire Sable Ensembles work within a Notion 5 environment.

Spitfire Sable Ensembles test sequence

A few bars made for testing how the Spitfire Mural Strings work within a Notion 5 environment.

Spitfire Mural strings test sequence

Copyright Otto Martin Christensen 2011
1st movement of a suite for flute, violin and cello in four movements, composed for the splendid Silver Roots ensemble, who premiered the piece in New York January 2011. The piece is composed in Notion, and the audio you hear is produced by Notion's own bundled samples, with a little assistance from Miroslav Philharmonik's string samples a few places. The idea behind the piece is to mix certain elements from baroque music with folkish/popular ingredients -- rhythmic verve being one of several common denominators. The 2nd movement is based on a much beloved Scandinavian folk song, originating from the Åland Islands.  Please send me a message at otto.m.christensen@gmail.com if you want pdf-files of score & parts.


Baroque Folk Suite (Flute, Violin Cello) - 1st mvt

Copyright Otto Martin Christensen 2011
1st movement of a suite for flute, violin and cello in four movements, composed for the splendid Silver Roots ensemble, who premiered the piece in New York January 2011. The piece is composed in Notion, and the audio you hear is produced by Notion's own bundled samples, with a little assistance from Miroslav Philharmonik's string samples a few places. The idea behind the piece is to mix certain elements from baroque music with folkish/popular ingredients -- rhythmic verve being one of several common denominators. The 2nd movement is based on a much beloved Scandinavian folk song, originating from the Åland Islands.  Please send me a message at otto.m.christensen@gmail.com if you want pdf-files of score & parts.



Otto Martin Christensen

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