Contemporary and experimental, avant-garde and modern. Newly composed art music can be difficult to navigate and it often has a reputation for challenging performers as well as audiences. Luckily there is a wide variety of music composed in the last quarter century that will delight and captivate even the most traditionally oriented ears. For ensembles who are looking for fresh repertoire, but wish to stay within a more traditional framework of melodic gestures, familiar structures and tonal foundations, Edition·S presents this collection of composers and works. Each composer uses their unique musical language to present forward looking works which do not rely on experimental techniques to create a new listening experience.
Ejnar Kanding: Captivating musical expression enhanced by live electronics
Kanding writes: "Nordic Fragments (2021) is a work which features moods and colors as fragments that are drawn into the music. The genre can be described as Dark Ambient with a focus on a gradual change, exploration of tonal modal harmonic structures and live electronics. The acoustic sound of the trio is transformed in real time by the MaxMSP software into a double-sided expression: the acoustic reality and the surreal electronic sound processing."
"The work is conceived in a larger series, which is characterized by music with Nordic moods. It is the dawning morning that looms hopefully in the east. And the melancholy dusk when the sun colors the northern sky in red-orange. The ecstatic endless bright summer nights, and the endless pensive long winter evenings."
Nordic Fragments (2021) for violin, cello, piano and live electronics / Score
For small ensembles wishing to present repertoire that features live electronics but caters to an audience that is accustomed to a more tonal and traditional sound, the later works of Ejnar Kanding are a wonderful choice. Here we highlight his works from the Nordic series as well as other recent compositions.
Fragile Fortitude (2023) violin, cello, piano + live electronics / Score
Garden of Gethsemane (2021) bass clarinet, cello, piano / Score
Nordic Fragments (2021) violin, cello, piano + live electronics / Score
Nordic Extraction (2021) violin, viola, cello, piano + live electronics / Score
Nordic Broken (2020) clarinet, violin, cello, piano + live electronics / Score
Danish Golden Age (2019) cello, piano + live electronics / Score
Indra Riše: Impressions of nature expressed as intimate and atmospheric
"Music is like a feast of the soul. It addresses, narrates, exhilarates... It teaches the language of the souls and teaches understanding. I could be as mute as a fish, I could stop talking, But music would still convey all I have to say."
In 1993, Indra Riše came to study in Copenhagen on a prestigious scholarship, and was subsequently the first woman in Denmark who mastered a full course in composition. Her music unfolds in a field of tension between her Latvian roots on the one hand and an international, modernist orientation on the other. Compositionally, she renounces sophisticated avant-garde resources and concentrates instead on genuine lyrical emotional expression.
Riše often composes with an evocative and narrative style. A number of her works feature allusions to nature in which the audience can be transported by the sound of seagulls on a windy beach or experience the composer’s musical interpretation of color. Most of her catalogue includes intimate works for solo, duo or a trio of musicians. Audiences will find music with a modern style which at turns has a calming and atmospheric quality but can also become light and jubilant.
Nocturne of the Wind (1996) for violin, piano and electronics
Lars Hegaard: A rich catalogue of melodic mosaics and rhythmic impulses
Lars Hegaard studied guitar with Ingolf Olsen (diploma 1973, music teaching degree 1977), and composition with Ib Nørholm (diploma 1980). As a result, he has composed many works for solo guitar and chamber music which centers on guitar, but his compositions cover all genres. Hegaard's music can be viewed as following two main tracks, which are however often present in the same work: constructive clarity and expressiveness, often in several layers at the same time or in mosaics; and a very rhythmic, gesticulatory line, often with a decided rhythmic pulse and drive (sometimes with inspiration from ethnic music or medieval music). The catalogue has a fresh and impressionistic quality and although Hegaard composes in a modern style, the music feels engaging and familiar to all audiences.
Lars Hegaard writes: “I nearly always operate with several levels and set them up against one another, almost like a sound-sculpture. In reality they don't need to be changed that much, their actual identity is maintained, but they are displaced in relation to one another, just as when a prism is turned.”
For a sampling of some of his works, visit the excellent 2021 release from Dacapo records, Octagonal Room, featuring Jesper Sivebæk on guitar.
Points of Disappearance (2002) for cello and guitar
Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen: Modern Danish Romanticism
The composer writes: "I would like to write magical music that isn’t easy to see through, and which has a special sound or tone that stimulates the senses and fill the audience with wonder."
Imagination, emotion and feelings: Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen cultivates mystery in his music. The words ‘night’, ‘dream’, ‘stillness’, ‘winter’ and ‘dance’ recur in his atmospheric titles and Hvidtfelt Nielsen’s music, like Mahler’s, seems to tremble at the lips. He openly acknowledges an affinity with both the aesthetic of Romanticism and a special Danish variant that we see unfolding in the work of among others Hans Abrahamsen and Bent Sørensen. In Hvidtfelt Nielsen’s work, this is a matter of poetry and melancholy, present ever since the composer began his journey into art music.
Many of the composer's works explore musical narrative by using a larger chamber ensemble. Alt imens (2017) opens with a declaration from the winds and strings, which dissolves to an inward murmur accompanied by a plaintive piano ostinato. The pastoral quality becomes menacing and dissonant in the middle section, culminating in the piano's insistent outburst. The disturbance eventually finds its way back to the melancholic opening themes before finally disappearing into the vulnerable shimmer of muted string harmonics.
Alt imens (2017) for wind quintet, string quintet and piano / Score
Rachel Yatzkan: Impactful and spirited works infused with modern folk energy
A characteristic of Rachel Yatzkan’s music is its physicality and decidedly sensual manifestation in sound: It is almost physically present in the room. There is, in Rachel Yatzkan’s own words, a ‘resonance’ between the physical conditions expressed musically and the emotional states and phenomena below the threshold of consciousness.
Raised in Jerusalem by parents with roots in Persia and Bulgaria, one finds an undercurrent of Southern European and Middle Eastern folk music in Rachel Yatzkan’s music. This can be noticed in her preference for glissandi and micro-tonality, for irregular metres and fast pulsations. But her music is independent of new music’s many conventions and stylistic directions – it appears differently from work to work and yet nevertheless remains itself.
Yatzkan writes: "What drew me in when composing A-Bio-Genesis was the thought of how life arises and how organisms can reproduce themselves. There is no time notated in the music, and I wrote the different 'chains of proteins' and their reproduction as a parallel relationship. The last part...transforms into a melody and harmony, a shift in focus from the living material to the essence of a living being."
A-Bio-Genesis (2019) for string quartet / Score
Finn Savery: Dualism, diversity and integration: a crossover catalogue
Finn Savery is a multi-track musician and composer. Throughout his musical career he was an actively performing jazz pianist and an actively writing composer of scores. He had an undogmatic attitude to musical styles and composed in a wide area ranging through the tonal tradition, European modernism, folk music, popular music, jazz and rock. He could cultivate a pure style or create clashes with fluid transitions between different forms of music, often by composing with the musical material in several ways. Savery’s catalogue represents an eclectic collection of works which range from modern classical selections and crossover works, to pieces with a clear foundation in jazz.
The composer says: "For me it's crucial that the works succeed as works, and in reality I don't care what styles people think appear in them. For me it's almost like composing in different keys - it all belongs together, it's all that you relate to, that you feel for; it forms part of your language, it belongs there."
Dacapo Records has produced an excellent recording which features the composer’s talent for writing contemporary classical music. Some of the works present an experimental and modern edge but his roots in rhythmic music keep the listener grounded in a familiar aesthetic.
Sommer-Sats (1992) for string quartet
Timothy Baxter: Meticulously crafted compositions rooted in a classical sound.
Timothy Baxter’s formative years were very much centered around the church, first as a choirboy and later as an organist, and so naturally his compositional work started early. After studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London he went on to attend the Dartington Summer School of Music, meeting with a diverse and influential range of composition teachers such as Stefan Wolpe, the Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski, and the American composers Elliott Carter and Aaron Copland.
With his background and development within music from the church, Baxter’s catalogue reflects a style rooted in the traditional, classical sounds of tonal melody and harmony. Within that framework, Baxter shows off his compositional talents with chamber pieces which are highly engaging for their rich harmonic textures, driving rhythms and fluid melodies. The collection boasts works with a wide variety of instrumentation, and is an excellent source of music which features winds and brass. Ranging from late romantic to impressionistic, his music conveys an uplifting energy to inspire both the audience and performers.
String Quartet (1965) for violin 1, violin 2, viola and cello / Score
Many of the composers represented in the catalogue write music which leans more experimental and groundbreaking in nature. However, even among this group one can find many fine examples of contemporary classical works which remain grounded in traditional musical styles. The following collection will enhance programs and expand imaginations.
Steingrímur Rohloff: Die 4 Himmelsrichtungen (2020)
Rohloff’s stunning work, translated as ‘The Four Cardinal Directions’, is a compositional tour de force which exploits the wide range of expression possible with this instrumentation. The composer has studied with the French masters and their influence is evident in this lush, spectral and often impressionistic score. At turns dramatic, playful and enigmatic, Rohloff’s work is sure to become a classic of the repertoire.
Die 4 Himmelsrichtungen (2020) for Clarinet, violin, cello, piano / Score
Martin Stauning: After the Party a Feather Floats Beneath the Ceiling (2020)
Martin Stauning writes intense and evocative music. His works always have an immediate and sensuous quality demonstrating Stauning's distinctive, personal, lyrical expression. After the Party presents a duality, wherein he explores a tremendously dramatic and intense expression which immediately engages and challenges the listener. He then turns inward, gradually dissolving the structure so that the music seeks within itself a quiet dream world of beautiful soundscapes.
After the Party a Feather Floats Beneath the Ceiling (2020) for flute, clarinet, 2 percussion, viola, cello, harp / Score
Kasper Rofelt: Dichotomy (2020)
Rofelt’s composition, Dichotomy is reflective of the New Simplicity movement in Danish music. With this work, one experiences a cleansing listen, full of the composer's combination of shapely lyricism and ascetic argumentation, often thriving on a combination of opposites. The work is presented as a type of question and answer, wherein the first movement unfurls a philosophical standpoint before the second movement takes a heated discussion.
Dichotomy (2020) flute, clarinet, bassoon, harp, piano, violin, viola, harp / Score
Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen: Seven Audio Plays (2009)
Lasse Larsen says of the composer: “Olesen possesses an unusually developed ability to imagine original and surprising music; he knows how to write impossible music. By "impossible music", I mean music which sounds illogical, almost seeming to defy the laws of nature - like an object crazily tilted, an organism run amok, or the collision of apparently dialectical opposites.”
Seven Audio Plays (2009) for clarinet, trombone, percussion, double bass, and piano, is an imaginative and diverse collection of movements. The work is a study in contrasts and movements 3-5 can be found on Soundcloud. First, the listener is treated to a delightful island serenade, followed by an impressionistic piano solo that wobbles atop an undulating tempo, and finally finds peace in the still and introspective 5th movement.
Mette Nielsen: Forstilling om et fastfrosset øjeblik (2020)
Nielsen writes of Notion on a Frozen Moment: “What would it be like if you could stop in the middle of a piece? If you could remove time, and walk around and observe all the elements. Hear all that within a tone that is usually gone before we can catch it. Just be in the middle of the sound for a while.”
Like skating on a frozen pond, this work is a crystalline and minimalist exploration into the lush sound pallet of the string quartet. The piece has a calm fluidity that is almost without rhythm or traditional melody but is centered around a tonal harmonic structure.
Forstilling om et fastfrosset øjeblik (2020) for string quartet / Score