Here we curate works of Universal Edition's new composers

New UE composers and works

Les Mains Nues by David Chaillou played by Moises Fernandez Via

This album marks the start of the Mexican composer’s relationship with Signum Classics and highlights his musical and literary passions in performances by world-class soloists Kerenza Peacock, Laura van der Heijden, and Huw Watkins. Behold the Stars reached the Classical Billboard Charts and was highlighted by Apple Music as one of their Top 10 of the month.

The album’s title comes from the last line of Dante’s Inferno: “We then emerged to behold the stars again.” Reading this you can almost feel the freshness of freedom after the stifling pits of Hell have been traversed. The stars they emerge to behold are the ultimate goal of Dante’s journey; one he eventually reaches in Paradise. My love and fascination for Dante precede my Italian sojourn for a long, long time. So it happened that, as I was rereading Inferno’s last canto, I heard a chilling chant. That’s how A riveder le stelle, the title track of Behold the Stars, was born.

Piano Trio, R. 9: I. Allegro

Georg Streuber-Chraniuk, baritone
Markus Syperek, piano

The 'Kaddish' prayer is one of the central and best-known texts within Judaism. It is considered as a Jewish Prayer for the Dead and for Mourners and is recited at Jewish funerals as well as at the anniversaries of a death or at memorial events. Death and Mourning do not as such appear in the text; the Aramaic and Hebrew words speak more of a glorification of God and God's forthcoming Kingdom - words which should traditionally provide comfort for the mourners and strengthen them for their continuing lives.

The Kaddish has however also  a further function and is recited more frequently in traditional Jewish services; here it serves always as a division between different sections of the service text, as the conclusion of a reflection or meditation, and also as a form of transition and division between different themes. Special about the Kaddish is that it may only be used in a liturgical context when there is a 'Minyan' present, a quorum of at least ten Jewish adult males. 

Max Doehleman has now set this multi-layered traditional mourning song with the methodology of a Lied. The basic mood is melancholy, as is appropriate to the main theme - the setting should however not illustrate total hopelessness; the listener should instead experience a communication direct to the soul despite all the sense of loss and sorrow. A Kaddish that (as the prayer text itself indicates) reflects also the continuity of life and the cycle of arrival and departure. As well as the moment of grief the music can also beas an expression of transition or change.

Max Doehlemann: Kaddisch

Radmila Bocev, violina / violin
Božo Banović, klavir / piano

Recorded in 2007

Sheet music available at https://www.universaledition.com/en/Works/Robots/P0213639

Roboti / Robots

For Flute, Clarinet in Bb, piano, violin, cello

Unknown album (7/4/2016 2:41:3

Reverie(2014) Op.7  Mohammadreza Azin

This tuning fork was a present from Ludwig Van Beethoven to George Polgreen Bridgetower. See http://www.bl.uk/black-europeans/articles/george-polgreen-bridgetower for more information.

Beethoven's tuning fork

© Will Bedford 2018
Buy on Bandcamp - https://willbedford.bandcamp.com/track/embrace

Embrace

This piece is the second set of string quartet miniatures that I have composed inspired by words from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. This project by John Koenig attempts to encapsulate familiar but yet unnamed experiences by creating new words to describe them. About the project, Koenig writes:

"I think the act of naming something implies, very simply, that you’re not alone. We give names to things so we can talk about them. Once there’s a word for an experience, it feels contained somehow — and the container has a handle, which makes it much easier to pick up and pass around." 


The four words I chose for this set of miniatures are:

opia (0:00): the ambiguous intensity of looking someone in the eye, which can feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable.

chrysalism (1:11): the amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm, listening to waves of rain pattering against the roof like an argument upstairs, whose muffled words are unintelligible but whose crackling release of built-up tension you understand perfectly.

morii (5:23): the desire to capture a fleeting experience.

ambedo (6:47): a kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely absorbed in vivid sensory details  — raindrops skittering down a window, tall trees leaning in the wind, clouds of cream swirling in your coffee — briefly soaking in the experience of being alive, an act that is done purely for its own sake.

Excerpts from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows are used with the permission of John Koenig.

Recorded by the Daedalus Quartet in April 2019.

Daedalus Quartet

words, contained - set ii, for string quartet

Official demos for our Dulciano sample library for Kontakt - https://fracturesounds.com/product/dulciano/

The Hidden Kingdom - Will Bedford - Dulciano

Written for Universal Production Music's album 'Victorious'. 

Published as 'Breaking Down Barriers'.

Available to license here - https://www.universalproductionmusic.com/en-gb/search?vtag=1&vwave=1&vdesc=1&fq=composerIds:%2821870%29

Cascade

Composed by Juan Arroyo and played by Omar Nicho.
Live at Quipu 2019, Paris

1. Evil Man

Composed for Universal Prodcution Music's 'Earth Day' album.

Watch the DAW screencast at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxqiKTCX3fI

Available to license at https://www.universalproductionmusic.com/en-gb/search?vtag=1&vwave=1&vdesc=1&fq=composerIds:%2821870%29

As One

Composer. Hailed as “an astonishing composing talent” (Apple Music), Rodrigo Ruiz regularly receives commissions from leading musicians, ensembles and institutions around the world looking for “unabashedly tonal” and “well-crafted [music]” (BBC Music Magazine). His works are published by Universal Edition and recorded by Signum Classics. Behold the Stars (2021), his latest album, surpassed 600,000 streams, reached the Billboard Charts, iTunes No. 2 best-sellers and Apple’s Top 10 Albums of the Month.

Piano Trio, R. 9: I. Allegro

Rodrigo Ruiz

Related tracks