Contemporary Instrumental Music

orchestral

. conducted by Massimo Mazzeo
. recorded at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, September 28th 2012
. Festival Jovens Músicos 2012
. awarded at SPA/Antena 2 Composition Contest 2012

o que será do rio without John Cage? - Divino Sospiro baroque orchestra

Brony polka instrumental

"I could not think of thee as piecèd rot"
for soprano and orchestra

conductor - Magnus Lindberg
soprano - Inês Simões
Gulbenkian Orchestra

composer - Nuno da Rocha
words by - James Joyce & Fernando Pessoa

Sleep now, O sleep now, 
   O you unquiet heart! 
A voice crying 'Sleep now' 
   Is heard in my heart. 

The voice of the winter 
   Is heard at the door. 
O sleep, for the winter 
   Is crying 'Sleep no more.' 

My kiss will give peace now 
   And quiet to your heart - 
Sleep on in peace now, 
   O you unquiet heart! 
(James Joyce)

I could not think of thee as piecèd rot,
Yet such thou wert, for thou hadst been long dead;
Yet thou liv'dst entire in my seeing thought
And what thou wert in me had never fled.
Nay, I had fixed the moments of thy beauty -
Thy ebbing smile, thy kiss's readiness,
And memory had taught my heart the duty
To know thee ever at that deathlessness.
But when I came where thou wert laid, and saw
The natural flowers ignoring thee sans blame,
And the encroaching grass, with casual flaw,
Framing the stone to age where was thy name,
    I knew not how to feel, nor what to be
    Towards thy fate's material secrecy.
(Fernando Pessoa)

premiere at ENOA's Concert - Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 12th September 2014.

recorded by Antena 2.
(photo by Márcia Lessa)

I could not think of thee as piecèd rot - for soprano and orchestra

"Philippina"
double concerto for Trumpet, Accordion and Wind Orchestra

composer: Nuno da Rocha

trumpet: Marco Silva
accordion: João Barradas

conductor: Alberto Roque
orchestra: ESML Wind Orchestra

premiere
7th june 2014, Vianna da Motta auditorium, Lisbon - Portugal

audio
recorded by: Alexandre Gonçalves, André Alves, Martim Souto
edited by: André Barroso

"Philippina" - double concerto for Trumpet, Accordion and Wind Orchestra

Sonata a 4 Mains-Rustique/Poulenc

I took our MIDI and recorded it on my VST's Yamaha C7. Hope you all enjoy.

Don't Mine at Night (Piano Cover) - WeimTime and DJDelta0

We took a few songs and are playing them out over a variety of VSTs and Plugins. Tell us what you think.

Smile Smile Smile

Light Of Your Cutiemark - Strings and Piano Arrangement - MP3 Download.

Live performance of the US Premiere of Chen Yi's viola concerto, Xian Shi, with Michael Hall, viola and the Chicago Composers Orchestra. Matthew Kasper, conductor.  Xian Shi is the first viola concerto written by a Chinese composer. 

Chen Yi –  "Xian Shi" Concerto for viola and orchestra. American Premiere

From the new album of Mason Bates' symphonic music with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Released Dec 2015, it features numerous pieces that have never been released before. 
Purchase the album on iTunes (http://apple.co/1NYzF0W), Amazon (http://amzn.to/1NJuHn1), Google Play (http://bit.ly/1RddG6N) or the BMOP site (http://bit.ly/1M68IRF). 

Sea-Blue Circuitry - BMOP (excerpt)

RESTART for orchestra
(commission by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian)
Nuno da Rocha

Gulbenkian Orchestra 
dir. Joana Carneiro

recorded by RTP / Antena 2 (9th October 2015)
(premiered on 8th October 2015 at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian)

audio edition: João Dionísio

program note:

RESTART é uma metáfora sobre a anarquia que percorre a minha cabeça. RESTART representa
a minha liberdade, de fazer, de pensar e de partilhar com os outros. De viver com os outros. É uma pergunta. E talvez não responda a nada. Eu creio que talvez seja uma afirmação política. O pensamento é anarca. Esta partitura é anarca. Embora uma partitura nunca seja anarca. Mas esta é quase anarca. RESTART é um pequeno coral de Bach numa tela do Francis Bacon. RESTART é uma tela do Francis Bacon que ele nunca chegou a pintar. São os músicos da Orquestra Gulbenkian que fazem a RESTART.
É deles. O primeiro acorde é deles e o último é de todos nós. RESTART foi escrita para o reiniciar deste palco nesta temporada. Nesta casa. RESTART é uma agressão à palavra, à linguagem verbal. Esta linguagem inventou a religião. Separou o Homem. A música só-música não.
É anarca como eu.

RESTART for orchestra

IMPOSSIBLE REMIX - "Megalovania" Undertale
IMPOSSIBLE REMIX - "Megalovania" Undertale
IMPOSSIBLE REMIX - "Megalovania" Undertale
IMPOSSIBLE REMIX - "Megalovania" Undertale
IMPOSSIBLE REMIX - "Megalovania" Undertale
IMPOSSIBLE REMIX - "Megalovania" Undertale

IMPOSSIBLE REMIX - "Megalovania" Undertale

Performed May 31, 2016 by the EOS Repertoire Orchestra, conducted by Jiao Wang at the 2016 Beijing Modern Music Festival in the Concert Hall of the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, China.

The beauty and order of fractals never ceases to amaze me, from the simplicity of the Sierpinski Triangle to the incredible complexity within the Mandelbrot set. I am mesmerized by videos that zoom ad infinitum into one of these fractals, revealing the same shapes over and over, gradually transformed by subtle and complex processes. In Fractal Miniatures, I have strung eight short movements together that each reflect my impressions of various fractals, taking them as pieces of art. 

The eight movements are arranged symmetrically, with the fifth movement as the focal point. The outer movements, named after the famous Sierpinski Triangle, are rhythmic and unyielding, pounding away at incessant rhythms through massive swells and dips. The second movement, flowsnake, is a spoonerism of snowflake, and is a simple space-filling fractal. This movement concentrates on sinewy flowing lines that spiral around one another. The third and seventh movements both open the same way, with the cello and percussion fading in ethereally into a pointillistic texture. The third movement, Newton Fractal continues this idea in a somewhat fitful manner, with various instruments taking turns with interjections. The seventh, Nova Fractal, is more linear, featuring a muted trumpet solo over an amorphous soup of string trills. 

The fourth and sixth movements are named after the Dragon Curve, another space-filling curve. These two movements are abrupt and explosive, with sharp attacks and caustic gestures. They are also almost-exact mirror images of each other. The central movement of the set is named for arguably the most easily-recognized fractal, the Mandelbrot Set. Scored without percussion, the musical shape of this movement mimics the characteristic bulbous shape of the fractal. An underlying ostinato in 7/8 sets the stage for soaring lines and expansive harmonies.

Fractal Miniatures was originally written for the SONAR new music ensemble as a mixed nonet. For more information, please visit http://www.rogerzare.com/fractal_miniatures.htm

Fractal Miniatures for orchestra

para comprar o disco / to buy this album:
nunodarocha.bandcamp.com
www.mpmp.pt

"Mesmo que faça frio"
Ciclo de Canções para 8 vozes femininas e Piano Preparado / Songs for 8 female voices and Prepared Piano

album "Mesmo que faça frio"
Nuno da Rocha's works for Children's Choir

Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa Children's Choir
conductor. Filipa Palhares

piano. Pedro Ferro
voices. Carolina de Andrade, Madalena d'Oliveira Martins, Sara Megre, Mariana Rodrigues, Raquel Rebordão, Ana Varela, Rita Miranda, Beatriz Ferreira

text by J. Tolentino Mendonça

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production. Tangente
audio. Cláudio Carvalho | Estúdio SantaRosa | Underdog Music Solutions 
cover & layouts. Guilherme Campos Gil

recorded at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa (June 2013, October 2016)

supported by 'Antena 2' and 'mpmp'

Mesmo que faça frio

for Orchestra (in 4 scenes)

I. We Shall Fight (0:00-5:52)
II. Burgeon of Strength (5:53-9:17)
III. Noble Morn (9:18-14:20)
IV. The March (14:05-19:06)

CHURCHILL'S WAR for Orchestra is the next in my series of works in the realm of music and speech, exploring the inward affect of their shared physical traits (pitch, rhythm, and amplitude). The piece highlights Churchill's stirring vocal performance. Occasionally, orchestral sonorities are combined with processed recordings of Churchill's speech, weaving together sonic textures and illuminations, viscerally re- contextualizing Churchill's oration while revealing connections between melody and text.

DREW SCHNURR (2013)

Churchill's War

Music by composer Roger Zare. Check out more by visiting http://www.rogerzare.com