I was shocked and sad to hear of the sudden death of Maciej Rosalak on March 12, 2023. I played this improvisation in memory for him. He was a wonderful man, historian, husband, father and grandfather. He combined a bright mind with an unlimited knowledge, a huge warm heart with a strong character. The calmness, friendliness and warmth he was incorporating made every meeting with him a pure pleasure. He will never be forgotten. His daughter Karolina Wolska wrote that my piece "is really matching to my father: So Polish, hope, beauty and changing." So I was encouraged to publish it here for all of us who mourn for this wonderful human being.

For Maciej

I wrote this song for the LaLeLu show "Alles richtig gemacht" in 2022, and they recorded it live for their CD with the same name. You hear "magic bass" Tobias Hanf with an amazing tribute to grandmaster Bobby McFerrin. Of all my songs inspired for Africa this is probably the one I like most. Thank you, Tobias Hanf, Jan Melzer, Frank Valet and Sanna Nyman! You can buy the CD on www.lalelu.de!

Heart of Africa

I am very proud of this CD, which brings together all my important works for piano and recorder: Imibala yenjabulo, Tell them I've had a wonderful life, Cádiz, and the Three Sad Songs! 

Cádiz is located in Andalusia, on the southern Spanish Atlantic coast. It was founded by Phoenician seafarers around 1100 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in Western Europe. Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, and Spaniards ruled the city and ran trade from there. The old town overlooking the sea with its centuries-old ensemble of the fortress, the town hall, the watchtowers, theaters, churches, and cathedrals reminds us of a fairytale. Manuela de Falla and Paco de Lucía were born here. This fascinating place inspired me to write the Suite CADIZ, of which you here can listen to the third movement. ALONE ON THE SHORE  is a lamenting song, the melody complains about a painful loss - the piano accompanies thoughtfully, asks questions, hears the recorder answer, listens thoughtfully, and insists on always the same rhythm.

My biggest thanks to Chris Orton who recorded this album with me in June 2022 in Warsaw. We released it on December 1. You can listen to this track for free this weekend! You can order the CD on my website:
https://www.soerensieg.de/en/content/cadiz-5

Alone On The Shore

Written in 2004, I composed "Celebration" for the closing concert of the Utrecht Recorder Festival in the Netherlands, and was premiered by the Malle Symen, Brisk and Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Recorder Quartets who came together in one ensemble.

I started and finished the entire piece within a span of three days. After developing the theme, or the first twelve bars, the rest of the piece flowed naturally. "Celebration"uses only the 7 notes of the diatonic scale, so there is no chromatism or modulations, you might call it “hypertonality.” 

While originally written for a recorder ensemble, I re-wrote "Celebration" for string orchestra, largely inspired by my love for string instruments. It was premiered by the Philadelphia Sinfonia in March this year under the conduct of Gary White. 

Despite my fondness for the recorder, I was not looking to replicate the sound of a recorder in this rewrite. Instead I hoped to incorporate and bring out certain details and characteristics that are difficult to achieve on the recorder including changes in dynamics, which string instruments can easily execute.

"Celebration" tells a story of celebrating something joyful, only 7 tones. Through this composition, I hope you might derive an appreciation for the beauty of simplicity. Simplicity and modesty for me are a key to happiness. We don’t need much to be happy in life. It’s the connections to others that count.

Sören Sieg: Celebration

I wrote the Circle for the Ensemble Tastissimo in Oldenburg. It is a piece for eight hands at two pianos - and because many of my friends think it's my best piece, I am starting my Sound Cloud collection with it!

The Circle

Im Oktober 2012 reiste ich mit meinen Kindern zweieinhalb Wochen durch Jordanien. Höhepunkt der Reise war unser Besuch in der Wüste Wadi Rum, die bekannt wurde durch Lawrence von Arabien und den Film über ihn. Der Wadi Rum ist ein magischer Ort: Keine Menschen, Straßen oder Gebäude, (nahezu) keine Tiere und Pflanzen, nur Sonne, Wüste und darin jede Menge bizarrer Felsformationen - wie in einem Gemälde von Saldador Dalí, eine völlig neue Erfahrung von Zeit, Raum und Stille. Jabal Ram ist der höchste Berg im Wadi Rum. Das Stück beginnt mit einem Flötenspieler, der allein auf der Bergspitze seinen melancholischen Gedanken nachhängt, während die Sonne untergeht. Als des dunkel ist, erscheinen die Dschinn, die legendären arabischen Geistwesen: Sie fliegen auf den Berg zu, umkreisen ihn, jagen sich, schwirren durch die Luft und feiern eine wilde, arabische Walpurgisnacht. Ich bedanke mich bei Simon Borutzki für den Kompositionsauftrag, die vielen Verbesserungsvorschläge und sein brillantes Dirigat, und beim Berliner Blockflötenorchester für die grandiosen Aufführungen und diese Aufnahme.

http://www.berliner-blockfloeten-orchester.de
www.simonborutzki.com
https://www.facebook.com/BBOrchester/

Alla Turca

Jabal Ram

Karungi in Luganda means Beautiful, and it is also a woman's name in the powerful tribe of Buganda. It is the second movement of my African Suite No. 22 I wrote for Syrinx: XXII, a trio located in Lisboa, with a truly international cast: António Carrilho from Portugal at the recorder, Katharine Rawdon from California at the flute, and Raj Bhimani, whose parents came to the USA from India and who currently lives in New York, plays the piano. I am glad they commissioned this suite, which describes some of my impressions from Uganda's vibrant capital city KAMPALA. They played the Premiere on November 27 2018 in Mumbai, in the NCPA (National Center for the Performing Arts). Here is a live recording from the concert. Catharine plays the bass flute. Enjoy!

Karungi  (African Suite No. 22: Inside Kampala, 2nd movement)

This it the first movement of Ixesha, my African Suite No. 20. Ixesha means time in Xhosa, and this refers to the African Proverb: "The Europeans have the clock, the Africans have the time." I tried to capture this different, floating, African feeling of time in this work. All four movements are centered around one theme and there are many repetitions and variations, as if the time slowed down, went in circles or stood still. For example, in the rhythm of the four-bar theme of Circle Dance you could dance round and round for hours. 
For the first time, I also let the players sing in the recorder and tap with their feet (I owe this idea to Tom Beets from the Flanders Recorder Quartet). As simple as the theme may seem, the first two bars are probably the most difficult of the whole piece because they should groove from the very beginning as if the music already had played for a long, long time. 

 I wish to thank the Boreas Quartet from Bremen – Jin-Ju Baek, Julia Fritz, Luise Manske and Elisabeth Champollion - for this fantastic and technically brillant performance. You really brought the piece to life! 

More information about this wonderful quartet you find at www.boreas-quartet.de. 

More about me you find at www.soerensieg.de. 
There you can also order the score.

Circle Dance (Boreas Quartett Bremen)

Ingxunguphalo in Xhosa means THE GREAT SORROW. I wrote it when my father Wolfgang Sieg passed away in autumn 2015. He was not only a great father but also a great artist and supporter and inspired me throughout all his life. Ingxunguphalo became the second movement of my African Suite No. 16 Inxaxheba and was recorded beautifully by the Flanders Recorder Quartet in 2016. The quartet then played it at the memorial service of Friedrich von Huene in Boston the same year, where Janet Haas heard it. She asked me to write a version for string orchestra and solo violin, which you can also hear on this SoundCloud account. Then I got to know Gary White, the conductor, and director of the Philadelphia Sinfonia, and he asked me to write a version for solo cello and string orchestra, which works very well, as I think. Here you hear it played by the Philadelphia Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra, conducted and directed by Gary D. White, Naomi Aires plays the violoncello solo and Ethan Frankel the violin solo. You can get to know more about the Philadelphia Sinfonia on their website: 
www.philadelphiasinfonia.com
I wish to thank Gary, Naomi, Ethan and all other players for this beautiful and very emotional performance!

Ingxunguphalo - The Great Sorrow (Philadelphia Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra)

BLUE EARTH is the third movement of Mathongo Amnandi, my African Suite No. 24. Mathongo Amnandi in Xhosa means Sweet Dreams. Blue Earth is about the dream of being an astronaut, flying through space and watching our earth, the blue planet. It’s also a kind of prayer and meditation. Musically it consists of twelve variations on the first four bars, only interrupted by one three-bar bridge.  
I wish to thank Seldom Sene, the fantastic recorder quintet from Amsterdam, who commissioned the piece and recorded it on December 16 last year in Amsterdam for their CD Not a Single Road, which was published in September 2019. I also wish to thank the brilliant sound engineer Andrea Friggi. It was such a pleasure working for and with you all!

Not a single road

Blue Earth

This is the third movement of Wakati njema, my African Suite No. 15. Wakati njema in Kisuaheli means The Best Moment. I chose this title according to the African proverb: "The best moment to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best moment is now." I interpret this as wise advice that if you regret not having started something a long time ago, don’t just complain and do nothing, but instead start it now. And by the way - this also applies to myself! The best moment to have become a composer would surely have been 25 years ago, but I only began to focus on composing after a long travel through Subsaharan Africa in 2015. The decision, even though it took me a while, still makes me very happy. I hope you can hear this expressed throughout the whole piece - singing out of intense joy in the first movement, celebrating breathless excitement in the third.
I wish to thank I Flautisti - The London Recorder Quartet (Jitka Konečná, Yu-Ching Chao, Doris Lindner and Ilona Veselovská)for this brilliant recording which they included in their album DOUCE DAME JOLIE, published in January 2019.
You can learn more about them on their website:
http://www.iflautisti.com/
You can order the score of Wakati njema on my website:
www.soerensieg.de

Douce dame jolie

Wakati njema, African Suite No. 15: No. 3, Hivyo ndivyo (That's it!)

"Mavumo ya uana" means Childhood memories. This piece was my first recorder quartet and my African Suite No. 3 (in the meantime I wrote six recorder quartets and 29 African Suites!). I wrote it in 2003 for the famous Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, who played it all around the world from Holland to Hawaii, published it in their Moeck edition, but unfortunately never recorded it on one of their CDs. And while I was so busy with my a cappella group and my three small children at that time, I never had the chance to attend a concert where they performed it. But in 2020 I met Robert Small from Fine Music Radio Sydney on my first trip to Australia, and he gave me this recording from the Musiekgebouw Amsterdam from March 28 in 2006.  He had played it on his radio show many times. What you hear is the second movement "kuagana" (Farewell) and the third movement "simo nzuri" (the good news). 
I wish to thank Daniël Brüggen, Karel van Steenhoven, Daniel Koschitzki and Andrea Ritter for this breathtaking performance and their personal permission to publish these two movements here on my Soundcloud account. Many thanks also to Robert Small who gave me access to the recording. And finally, I wish to thank my grandma Aenne Paff to whom I dedicated this piece and who died far too early in 1984. She gave me great childhood memories!

Mavumo ya uana

Sören Sieg (*1966) learned to play the recorder, violin, and piano as a child, and later also the saxophone, trumpet, guitar, and drums. He studied at the University of Music and Theatre Hamburg from 1991 to 1996. He was commissioned to write compositions for the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet, the Flanders Recorder Quartet, Seldom Sene, the Hanke Brothers, iFlautisti, the Boreas Quartet, Tastissimo, the Ensemble Pipelife, Music Festival neuköllner originaltöne, the Ensemble Flutes en bloc and many more. He celebrated Premieres in Hamburg, Berlin, Basel, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Paris, Mumbai, Taipeh and Tokyo. He lives as a composer in Hamburg.

Sören Sieg

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