"The Land Of Silence" was commissioned by and is dedicated to Kimberley Lynch & Adrian Foster, who gave the work its first performance on 30 May 2021 in a concert broadcast from the majestic church of Saints-Anges Gardiens de Lachine in Montréal, Canada. 

The work is a setting for amplified soprano, live electronics & organ of the 1896 poem 'Beata Solitudo' by Ernest Dowson (1867 - 1900).

Beata Solitudo

What land of Silence,
   Where pale stars shine
On apple-blossom
   And dew-drenched vine,
   Is yours and mine?

The silent valley
   That we will find,
Where all the voices
   Of humankind
   Are left behind.

There all forgetting,
   Forgotten quite,
We will repose us,
   With our delight
   Hid out of sight.

The world forsaken,
   And out of mind
Honour and labour,
   We shall not find
   The stars unkind.

And men shall travail,
   And laugh and weep;
But we have vistas
   Of gods asleep,
   With dreams as deep.

A land of Silence,
   Where pale stars shine
On apple-blossoms
   And dew-drenched vine,
   Be yours and mine!

THE LAND OF SILENCE (2021)

Memento Mori
for Large Ensemble

Performed by Northwestern University's Contemporary Music Ensemble
conducted by Ben Bolter

May 21st 2021, Regenstein Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston (US)

(bs fl, ob, clar, bs clar, bsn, hrn, trp, trb, tb, perc (2), pno, vln (2), vla, vcl, and db)

Memento Mori

day by day, towards lightness (2021) 
for string quartet

Robert Traksmann (1st violin)
Katariina Maria Kits (2nd violin)
Mart Kuusma (viola)
Marcel Johannes Kits (cello)

Tanel Klesement (sound engineer)

day by day, towards lightness (2021)

Organ + fixed media electronics piece incorporating vocal and pipe organ sampled sounds with heavy distortion.

OGRAL (2022-3)

"Aura Aurora" is an improvisation on the contrabass flute.  Everything is acoustic, with no overdubs or effects of any kind.  The spirit is lyrical, expressed in a deep voiced solo.   From the CD "Our Cells Know" Tzadik Records 4015, released 2016.  With thanks to John Zorn.

Aura Aurora

Rocailles de l'après-vie... - for large ensemble.
Written by Thomas van Dun in 2023.

Commissioned by the NTR ZaterdagMatinee and Asko|Schönberg, and premiered at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with Bas Wiegers. 

Performed by Asko|Schönberg, conducted by Clark Rundell on the January 25th 2024 at the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ. 

Copyright © 2024 by Thomas van Dun

Rocailles de l'après-vie...

THE SONORITY CABINET VIII: a collection of strange, rare and unusual pieces of music from ancient and contemporary times, brought together as a 'cabinet of curiosities', often mixing the glorious sound of Oosthuizen's historic organ with new, electronic textures. 
Our previous editions include the Mass (2013), Gothic (2014), Fun (2016), Love (2017), Dream (2018), Time (2019) and Magic (2023). 
Michael Bonaventure (1962, Edinburgh) is an organist and composer whose passion lies in unusual and experimental music and the blending of organ with electronic sounds. 
In this year's edition, The SECRET CABINET, Michael performs works by Erik Satie, Loo(p)cy (aka Lucia Caiazza), Adrian Foster, Frédéric Inigo, Geoffrey King, Luiz Henrique Yudo, as well as his own music and a selection of pieces from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.

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THE SONORITY CABINET VIII - The SECRET CABINET (2024)
Live recording 
Grote Kerk, Oosthuizen, The Netherlands
10 OCT 2024

Michael Bonaventure, organ & electronics

1. Modéré (1893) - Erik Satie
2. The Secret Cave (2024) - Loo(p)cy (aka Lucia Caiazza)
3. Worster Braules - Thomas Tomkins
4. Barafostus' Dreame - Anonymous
5. V.I.T.R.I.O.L. (2023) - Adrian Foster
6. Dr. Bull's Myselfe - John Bull
7. Dr. Bull's Juell - John Bull
8. Nowell's Galliard - Anonymous
9. Centon, set (2001) - Frédéric Inigo
10. Organ Postlude-Recessional (2024, première) - Geoffrey King
11. Encounters (2016) - Michael Bonaventure
12. Air de l'ordre (1892) - Erik Satie
13. Path Of Secrets (2020) - Michael Bonaventure & Loo(p)cy
14. ON WORDS: Q (2001, première) - Luiz Henrique Yudo
15. Felix Namque - Anonymous c. 1450
16. ORACLE (2024, première) - Luiz Henrique Yudo/Michael Bonaventure
17. Estampie (2024) - Huw Morgan 




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THE SONORITY CABINET VIII - The SECRET CABINET (2024)

Performance given by Huw Morgan on 5 October 2024 in "mainly slow organ music" #35, St. John-on-the-Wall, Bristol, UK.

CELESTIAL OBJECTS II (Mainly Slow Organ Music, Bristol, October 2024)

Second movement of the five part piano cycle Kringen, written for and performed by Ralph van Raat.

Composed with the support of the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst.

Ellips

Kringen, part 2

Recorded by Radio4

Performed by Nieuw Ensemble // Live in Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ

Zoning Out

2019 Rychenberg Composition Competition

Tissue (2019)

Bart Spaan (born 1963) studied musicology and history at the Universities of Nijmegen and Amsterdam. In the early eighties he played in the Dutch experimental rock group Bazooka. Through his musical studies he became interested in contemporary classical music, but he never lost his affinity with modern pop music. In 1992, for example, he worked together with the formation Gore.
After graduating he made contemporary music programmes for radio station De Concertzender. Later he had private composition lessons with Daan Manneke and in 1999 he attended the International Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn. 
At first he mainly wrote piano works, but in recent years he also composed for ensembles, such as The Barton Workshop and Ensemble ’88. His electro-acoustic compositions were performed at the Gergiev Festival and November Music 2012. In 2010 another electro-acoustic piece - Sur place: Interior - was selected by the Dutch ISCM section to be submitted for the ISCM World New Music Days 2011.
For a long time he wrote compositions for piano and tape that were inspired by works of Spanish painter Alberto Reguera. Five of these works have been included on his CD Silencios (Erasmus 2001). His second solo CD Ellips (Etcetera 2009) includes Kringen, a five-part piano cycle written for the Dutch pianist Ralph van Raat. This piece was nominated in 2010 for the Buma Toonzetters Prize, as one of the ten best works of the previous year.	
	In 2016 his latest work for piano solo Stasis - also composed for Ralph van Raat - was nominated for the Risuonanze Festival in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in Italy. 


Kringen, part 2

Bart Spaan

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