Rolf Rudin Works for Wind Orchestra – Comments by the Composer

Imperial Prelude

My first composition for symphonic wind orchestra»Imperial Prelude« was written in 1989 during my time as a clarinet-player in one of the German Military Bands.At this time I studied composition and conducting at the "Musikhochschule" in Würzburg and when I was asked to compose something for this band I got challenged to start a work. All the impressions of wind band literature I got there influenced my piece. Finallythe All State Wind Orchestra of Baden-Württemberg under the baton of Harry D. Bath premiered »Imperial Prelude« and I think this was the initial for my interest and engagement in writing for symphonic wind orchestras and ensembles till now.

 

»Imperial Prelude« is in my opinion an exciting and colorful piece which could be played as an opener as well as a highlight of a concert program. Each musician - and the audience too - will experience a very special challenge in this well-scored and energetic piece which has interesting harmonic progressions, dissonant culminations and an expressive hymn-like melodic line which leads the dramatic architecture to a brilliant finale.

Bacchanale

If it was a difficult venture, which could be solved only after completion of the score, to select an appropriate title for my first composition for symphonic wind orchestra - »Imperial Prelude« - the title »Bacchanalia« for my second work in this field came to my mind almost involuntarily when I was working with the score.

Originally the Greco-Latin term “bacchanal” referred to an ancient Roman festival to worship Bacchus, the Greco-Roman god of wine; later it was generally construed as a boisterous drunken party, as an orgy. Taking this into consideration the meaning of “bacchantic” may be explained as boisterous, drunk or exuberant. And it is this very atmosphere into which the music catapults musicians and audience alike by its initiatory beginning.

The audience rarely gets a chance to settle down, as it will be constantly entraled by the chord mixtures of the first part that pile up higher and higher, or it will be constantly kept in suspense by the virtuoso passages and rhythmic structures as well as by the sometimes abrupt changes of tone colors in the middle section. Only some two chamber music like insertions of extreme subtlety permit a short pause before the piece reaches its repeatedly and harmonically condensed apogee in an intensive obstinate gradation. A broadly conceived hymnal singing in the third part of the composition is to lead the audience to inner composure by emotionally reconciling the “high spirited” listener.

Formally the piece consists of three major parts which is comprehensible right from the beginning. The conductors of the first performances liked to characterize the initial section as the advent or splendorous welcome to a significant festivity. The fast middle section for them was a jaunty, i.e. exuberant, a true “carousal” hence and even an orgiastic eruption whereas the final section was interpreted as experiencing the following day as it emerges from a distant dawn.

As far as I am concerned personally, these imaginations did not come to my mind in a clearly striking manner during my compositional work, and I was much more interested in shaping the musical succession as strict developement towards an absolute apogee, which, however, could actually not be intensified by the musical means immanent in this piece. The great variety of tone colors natural to the symphonic wind orchestra and the harmonic shining in bitonal architecture leads to a twelve-tone total which is opposed at the very end by the selection of major/minor-tonal harmonics as conclusive contrast.

 

Cantus Arborum (Chant of the Trees)

Short Comment

Rolf Rudin's first symphony »Cantus Arborum«, Op. 33, (»Chant of the Trees«) is a composition in which he realizes a contemporary language for symphonic wind orchestra in a most extreme and uncompromising way. In large expressive arcs the music attempts to feel for the chant of the trees, a chant people listened to in former times because they were able to understand the language of nature. Nowadays the forest is always singing – but we do not listen to it.

 

The Dream of Oenghus
Poem of the „Green Island”

The musical poem »The Dream of Oenghus« refers to the Irish legend of the same name which was edited by Frederik Hetmann in his collection “Irish Magic Garden - Fairy Tales, Legends and Stories from Ireland”. The collection was published by the Eugen Diederichs Verlag. In this legend Prince Oenghus has a nightly vision when fast asleep: He sees a girl who plays a flute and falls in love with her. However, as she keeps disappearing she remains unattainable for him for the time being. He consequently sets out to search for her until he finally finds the girl. This piece is no musical retelling of this legend, in a way it rather invites reading the story, as there are only single phases and atmospheres of the legend serving as extra-musical sources of imagination.

The composition is conceived in a large two-part form. The first part was composed in 1993/94 and commissioned by the Confederation of German Band and Folk Music Associations as a Grade 3/4 test piece and consequently selected for the competitions that took place during the 2nd German Federal Festival of Music in Münster/Westfalia.

The music of the first part largely converts into sound patterns the vision which is described at the beginning of the legend. It was the atmosphere of something dreamlike or also something unattainable that became the inspiration for writing the music of a tenderly somber world of dreams: Noise sounds of the beginning, bell-like motifs and a vacillating sound stratum hovering in itself bestow upon this composition its mysteriously nocturnal character. Following it - through several repetitions of a mysterious chant in continuously increasing instrumentation and dynamics - an arc which apparently does not end is created that is able to symbolize the quest for the girl in terms of length of space and time like in a dreamlike premonition.

Without having read the legend again for some two years, the second larger part of the musical poem was written in 1996 for the State Wind Orchestra of Baden-Württemberg. It examines the more “real” aspects of the legend. At its beginning already the second part of this composition makes associations - expressed by its ferocity - to the prince's “aberrations” in his quest for the girl. This, as we know, was shown in the first part in a visionary and idealistically transfigured way. This also applies to the importance of the flute which was alluded to only towards the end of the first part whereas here it is given ample room for development: A large cantilena full of enigmatic expression floats above an harmonic carpet which links the visions of nightly tranquillity of the first part. A constantly repeated rhythmical increase of march-like character climaxes in picking up the “mysterious chant” of the first part. In that way it leads to formal unity of the complete work in an evident way. The atmosphere of apotheosis of the final coda makes the relieving b flat major disappear in the visionary noise sounds of the beginning and dismisses the audience in a peaceful “legendary” atmosphere.

 

Druids
a mythical Remembrance

“Druids” - one can't help remembering the time when one was a child, imagining druids as old white-bearded men, cutting mistle-toe, brewing some magic potion. This undoubtedly imaginativly idealized image in its bias can't be taken too serious - as recent historical research shows. The druids of the pre-Christian time in Western Europe, being magicians, seers, philosophers, singers, poets, acting as mediators between the world of the old Gods and human beings, could keep their nearly unlimites claim to power for quite a long time. Into this world, rather unknown and shrouded in mist, the listener is taken by this piece of music. As the subtitle indicates this music is entitled to be mythical, which means it is about meeting legendary figures or events one deeply admires. The listener needs peace and quiet for this composition - as you need peace and quiet for a deep remembering.

With large bows, long lasting tones and a slowly developing richness of sounds, sounds of even a quite dissonant character, the music brings a perfect scenary back to life - Nemeton, the holy clearing, place of the cultic rituals of the druids. After a rather static beginning now a beseeching melody, framed by naturalistic sounds of birds and played unisono by nearly all the orchestra, rises - like magic singing. The hymnic ending intends to symbolize the power and the glory of the druids.

Firmament

The source of inspiration for this composition is the indescribable extent of the firmament and the breathtaking impression one gets when observing it. The piece has 5 sections (A B C B A) and attemps, with many musical elements, to draw a heavenly arch. After the great opening the first section (A) radiates hymnal splendour. Rhythm is the main feature of the moving second section (B), whereas the slower middle section (C) bases on a wide melodic line. The following repetition of sections A and B, in reverse order, round off the wide arch.

Moor of Stars
a Departure

“There is a marsh in Ireland called 'Mona-Reulta'. The meaning of this Gaelic word is 'Moor of stars'. This swamp is full of small ponds and water holes, and in clear nights the star light is mirrored in it in a highly wondrous way.”

This enchanting description of the countryside is contained in the Irish story “The Moor of Stars” by Standish James O'Grady. In it the sudden and alarming beating of the drum foreboding an imminent attack by an ordinary drummer is saving the inhabitants of a city from a silently approaching enemy force prepared to conquer and to destroy. On account of his 'treacherous' action, the drummer is sentenced to death and drowned in said moor.

The subtitle, selected by me, "a Departure" consequently is to be construed in this sense. An ordinary drummer with no responsibility but his actual mission to mark the beat for the marching warriors - somebody hence who usually "marches in rank and file" only - decides to give away his life for those of other men. In my understanding this is a true departure - leaving behind an easy and comfortable way of life in an utterly altruist manner.

The »Moor of Stars« consosts of eight movements which smoothly flow into each other. The first movement Moor Dawn makes one sense the nebulous contours of a marching enemy force in the distance. Punctuated rhythms in the Lombard mode together with the repeated entry of the snare drum are meant to create teh association of an equivalent for the military. Melodic cells are distributed all over the orchestra in such a way that sound areas are created when being summed up. The monotonous and, interrupted time and again, muffled beat of the bass drum which constitutes sort of a frame for the first movement, suggests a heavily broken flow very much like that of a funeral march. It is to question all warlike activities right from the beginning. The second movement Mirror Star I is firmly rooted in the contemplation and picture of the scenic environment mentioned above. A frequently repeated line in the high register consisting of melodic “sound points” drifts above an almost motionless landscape of chords with only a short interruption by a minor chant-like phrase. The third movement Morning Star could basically be interpreted as an overexcited “quick march” which develops from a playful leggiero-like beginning into a piercing excess and fossilization. Suddenly, with no further intensification of the third movement possible, it breaks off abruptly, and one is already within the fourth movement Twilight Dim where you are exposed to a musical architecture of a contemplative and persistent character. Then - breaking suddenly - astonishment is caused by the warning beats on the drum together with the repeating and heavily dissonant brass. Thus a wild, crashing turmoil arises. The great bassoon solo of the fifth movement Moor Mirror slows down this dramatic developement abruptly once more allowing for room and time for a monologue of his inner self by the condemned man. After the return - in a shortened manner - of the sixth movement Mirror Star II to the atmosphere prevailing in the second movement, the seventh movement Moon-Engrossed forms the idea of the drummer's death, reminiscent of musical characters in Alban Berg's opera “Wozzeck” where that composer knew how to write the music for a drowning man in an almost naturalistic yet sublime manner. In the final movement Star Dawn a chant very much like an apotheosis or a chorale is being heard. Following a peaceful hymn-like intensification it comes to an end in a vision of hope symbolized by an E major chord.

Wi(e)derhall
Fragments

»Wi(e)derhall« is the title for a 13-part cycle which is virtually composed of fragments. In them musical material is treated in a very concentrated and often monochromatic way, very much like a drawing in one color. Consequently there are parts consisting e.g. “only” of a few recuring chords, whereas others are shaped by the exclusive use of the twelve-tone series or by a selected rhythmical form of motion. In this way there are quite characteristic pieces which distinguish themselves in terms of composition among the frequently encountered sound and structural multicolored “all sorts of things”.

The aim of the overall program of this cycle is to carry out the idea of an “open form” which was developed in our century on a greater formal level. Consequently both the number and the sequence of the individual parts may be arranged variably during any one concert. Performances of one movement only up to the complete composition do make sense, which may change from one execution to the other. The conductor selecting these different sequences thus may, to a certain extent, “calculate” the effect of the music on his audience. To give a certain ability to this variability, the individuel parts, next to their extensively severe structuring were also arranged among themselves in a wide range of common relations.

The ambivalence which is clearly expressed by the spelling of the title »Wi(e)derhall« in German - this pun may unfortunately not be transposed to English - hints to the use of musical material which was not used when crafting other compositions and that far existed as sketches only. The bearing of the title, however, is not only expressed literally or by the more or less varied “reverberating” of the material. It rather is the different approach up to the even conflicting shape of ideas and forms which, for me, created a contrast full of tension. In a way “counter sound” was to be composed.

Notes on the individuell movements

Breathing  In timeless tranquillity  (Medium Advanced)

Listening  In tense tranquillity  (Medium Advanced)

Sounding  Silently tapping  (Medium)

Blowing Very eventful  (Advanced)

A Hymn Very stately and intense  (Medium)

A Declamation  Quietly singing  (Medium Advanced)

Shining In brilliant silence  (Medium Advanced)

A Contemplation  Quietly dabbing (Medium Advanced)

Insisting  With insisting and never decreasing intensity  (Advanced)

Orbiting  Quietly flowing  (Advanced)

Opening up - Compelling - Cutting off  Very fast and with great force  (Advanced)

a Playing of the Waves

According to an old Carinthian legend, an entire city with all inhabitants submerged in the floods pouring out from a wondrous keg. Next morning a large lake covered woods and fields. When the waves touch the submerged bells, even today their pealing is heard from the depths from time to time.

The whole piece is „carried” by the woodwinds in an incessant flow like a tonal metaphor of the flowing manifestation of that vital element „water”. This flow is relentless within continuously alternating undulations. The text for the choir is solely based on combinations of syllables and letters of the title creating the impression of ritual semantics through constant repetitions. It is only towards the end of the composition that the phonetic silhouette is heard. Choir, wind orchestra and audience alike give heed to the playing of the waves creating the pealing of the bells form the church towers of the submerged city.

A Playing of the Waves

According to an old Carinthian legend, an entire city with all inhabitants submerged in the floods pouring out from a wondrous keg. Next morning a large lake covered woods and fields. When the waves touch the submerged bells, even today their pealing is heard from the depths from time to time.

The whole piece is „carried” by the woodwinds in an incessant flow like a tonal metaphor of the flowing manifestation of that vital element „water”. This flow is relentless within continuously alternating undulations. The text for the choir is solely based on combinations of syllables and letters of the title creating the impression of ritual semantics through constant repetitions. It is only towards the end of the composition that the phonetic silhouette is heard. Wind orchestra and audience alike give heed to the playing of the waves creating the pealing of the bells form the church towers of the submerged city.

The Fading of the Soul
a Lamentation

This composition opens up a new space of spiritual calmness and tonality for the symphonic wind orchestra. It was composed as a commission work by the State of Rhineland-Palatinate for the Eifel Music Days 1997. The subtitle, a Lamentation, is an indication of the dark character and the serious fundamental idea of the composition. The music sings of the mystery of immortality in a large arc based on an old original celtic melody which was sung in former times at burial-places of deceased people and which abducts the listener in a mythical loneliness at the end of the piece. One could interpret the incessant streaming of sound as the »Fading of the Soul«.

Song without Words

Rolf Rudin composed the "Song without words" in 1997 as an encore for a concert, conducted by himself, of his own works during the Eifel Music Day Festival in Germany. He himself describes this piece as a "melodic etude" or an "espressivo tone study". It is intended to be a "short,romantic-sounding piece".

The fact that this work goes far beyond normal "studies" is due largely to Rudin's ability to endow even short compositions with a development and intensity imbued with immense tension.

 

Pale Moon
a Nightly Painting

Some Remarks ...

The composition »Pale Moon« creates associations with a nocturnal painting full of sentimental poetry – mind it, for a wind orchestra! A quiet, little spectacular world opens itself to anybody who is willing to open himself.

Contemporary sound techniques such as formations of clusters, heterophonic sound strata, subtly diversified fade-outs of sound or the use of murmured words as well as blowing into the instrument without tone color – quasi an instrumental metaphor for human breathing – expand the otherwise “seemingly” traditional sound image. It is this image itself which develops an equivalent to our amorphous times because of its fragility and unwieldiness, in the sense of an artistic reflection so to speak.

When developing this composition, writing “economic” music was intended, which, using only few means, is shaped from very concentrated materials. Today “quiet music” may be a vehicle to “learn to listen”. Audiences and/or performers may possibly encounter unusual experiences, e.g.:

 to learn to wait

 to hear the stillness

 to seek the sound

to listen into the tone

to feel surrounded by a tone

 to ponder over a tone

 .  .  .  .  .

 

Sketch of the Development of the Composition

As stated at the beginning of the score comments, the music starts like out of nothing in a contemplative atmosphere  –  with some gentle sounds in the percussion  –  the application of one single tone follows, noticeable in various rhythmic figurations and a melodic encirclement  –  then again: sounds of percussion  –  and the single recurring tone, this time shaded in differentiated variability  –  and the percussion again  –  –  now finally the the twice repeated attempt to continue which, however, freezes  –  again the percussion and the “single tone structure”  –  –  then finally a “comprehensible” melodic context: like a line of a chorale which at once pours forth in a broadly flowing canonic stream of sound that is confined by the “single tone structure”  –  and again: the beginning of percussion  –  –  the “chorale”, the cantabile-melodic element now is given a shape of clearer contours and more space, almost always “sustained” by the stream of sound forming from melodic encirclements: the context becomes perceptible  –  towards a major apogee, with large and gentle sound shown as a hint in the score comments  –  after that the melodic happenings tighten in a limited sound space  –  –  –  a misterioso molto part follows with an organ-like rest of the clarinet section as a consequence of the preceding compression, and the instrumentalists murmur the following lines above an atmospheric rustle of the percussion: The pallid moon, oh, there between barren tree tops, in hibernation. A harmonic “slipping” in the trombones and the given heed to the fading metal chimes evoke a standstill  –  –  –  a stopping of “music” so to speak  –  after a long general rest now the portait of hibernation: “The stillness is sounding” and “The night is breathing”as spelled out in the score comments to describe music emanating from percussion sounds and the melodic encirclements of the beginning, from low brass sounds blown without tone color, and, noticeable again and again, soft and lonely calls in the night coming from the woodwinds  –  –  something completely unexspected bursts into this quietness, i.e. signal-like structures of the entire orchestra played with insistent intensity, the only truly loud and aggressive passage of the piece  –  after that: a short condensed reminiscence of the sound structures and atmospheres of the beginning, and the music disappears with great tenderness above a fading minor chord with a “calling” piccolo and fading out percussion.

 

About the End of Time
a Premonition

»About the End of Time«, a Premonition, Op. 52 was composed in 1998/99 as a commission work for the 9th International WASBE Conference which took place at San Luis Obispo/California/USA in 1999. For the 14th World Music Contest 2001 in Kerkrade/Netherlands this piece was nominated as the compulsory piece for the 1st Division.

The idea of the composition is a reflection of my personal occupation with spiritual and religious subjects; it is a reflection of my occupation with an apocalyptic scenario, with the questions: What happens at the end of our life on earth? – What happens at the end of human life in general? – And especially: What happens after that?

You will not find any definite answer to these questions in my piece. Please understand my music as an allusion, as an approach, as a premonition!

It is important to know that there is no story this work is based on. There is no direct programmatic connection f. ex. a connection to the Revelation of the Bible, or f. ex.: I do not paint a descent into hell or a life in paradise with my music. My intention is to offer you space and the opportunity to find individual imaginations.

»Twenty Steps«
an Essay of a Requiem

No English Translation available

 

Reflection of the Moon
a Nightly Painting

No English Translation available

Songs of Wolkenstein

 

This song cycle has eight movements: Four Fantasias, three songs and a story which is narrated by the singer a little bit similar to a melodrama so that the composition has formally an interesting great variety. The music sounds really colorful and has a chambermusical transparence.

 

The piece was a commission work by a German foundation (Werner Richard-Dr. Carl Dörken Stiftung) for a concert of the "Music Festival of Dortmund" in which additionally the "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff were intended to be programmed. Because of one cannot compose and orchestrate louder and bigger than the Orff piece with the large mixed chorus and the full orchestra I decided to do the opposite: I composed a piece which is very soft scored for a very small wind ensemble with doubled woodwinds and brass and a guitar, a harp and a harpsichord.

 

Regarding the singer I didn't qualify as "tenor" or "baritone". The part is composed in a medium range and therefore the singer can use for the lines in higher ranges a "falsetto"-voice. Furthermore some transposing in the next lower octave could be appropriate for a performance. Besides of these aspects of color and balance with the orchestra the singer should be able to present his part like an actor or speaker on stage. Especially the movement with the narration should be delightful and entertaining for the audience. It is also allowed to perform the song-cycle in excerpts, so especially a version without the "Narration" and the following "Fantasia 4". Instead of trumpets in Bb one can use trumpets in C because of a more "characteristic" color - therefore appropriate trumpet parts are included.

 

The piece offers space for an expressive deepness and creates a medieval sound pattern with contemporary means. The audience will be abduct with beautiful and non importunate sounds into a foreign world.

At the End of the Day
Sounds of the Evening

»At the End of the Day« – evening sounds – a nocturne? – an evening music or a serenade? – in a sense that's right!

One can suggest about it because of the choice for the soloinstrument, the English Horn. In this piece it plays softly and melodically in a calm gesture; all this one links with this instrument. – and even so with an evening music.

But then – the English Horn or the orchestra or nearly many parts of the composition break out of the expectation one has of a nocturne. The English Horn part gets more and more virtuosity which is quite a bit unusual for this instrument. And these virtuoso structures result from the musical and mental architecture of the piece: Because "At the End of the Day" people often have scarring things in their mind. Nowadays most of them have a hectic time with an immense amount of disturbing influences. And what is called relaxing gets more and more impossible.

In this sense one can interpret the very fast episodes which disturbe the calm flowing gesture of the piece as some "nightmare-allegros".

So the "new" evening sounds, this contemporary nocturne have a reacting chararacter in reflecting our live. The "counter sound" of the music could mean: "get away from the idyll!" – and that is something disquieting.

Sounds of the Evening
– a Notturno?

»At the End of the Day« – evening sounds – a nocturne? – an evening music or a serenade? – in a sense that's right!

In this piece the music developes softly and melodically in a calm gesture; all this one links with an evening music. But then the orchestra or nearly many parts of the composition break out of the expectation one has of a nocturne. The instrumental parts  get more and more virtuosity which is quite a bit unusual for such a sujet. And these virtuoso structures result from the musical and mental architecture of the piece: Because "At the End of the Day" people often have scarring things in their mind. Nowadays most of them have a hectic time with an immense amount of disturbing influences. And what is called relaxing gets more and more impossible.

In this sense one can interpret the very fast episodes which disturbe the calm flowing gesture of the piece as some "nightmare-allegros".

So the "new" evening sounds, this contemporary nocturne have a reacting chararacter in reflecting our live. The "counter sound" of the music could mean: "get away from the idyll!" – and that is something disquieting.

P.S.: This piece is a version of »At the End of the Day« without the soloinstrument. This part is really fine worked in the whole orchestration.

 

»…to Infinity…«
a Symphonic Approach

An artist's life has increasingly become an individual adventure over the centuries. In Pablo Picasso's opinion, for those who have chosen painting as their sphere of activity this individual adventure always goes back to the one adventure which is the archetype of our time – the adventure of van Gogh – an essentially solitary and tragic adventure.

In the hundreds of letters Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, who was devoted to him in selfless helpfulness, the almost complete biography of the painter can be trailed on a high literary level. It is not only the circumstances of Vincent's life that are described here but also the motives and backgrounds of his work as an artist. [...]

Reading these texts is impressing, pleasing and shattering at the same time as we learn about the exemplary nature of his artist's fate in a variety of aspects, about Vincent's views on phenomena such as love, religion, and death and much more. [...] Van Gogh's word-power is almost equal to his artistic expressiveness. Vincent's statements are always honest, sincere, and truthful and they reflect the life of a man who was obsessed with his task and who went his way up to the tragic end.

The work of van Gogh has been accompanying me since I have been active artistically. [...] I called the piece »...to infinity ...« and it exactly is about what in my opinion was something crucial for Vincent's life and work, for a painter who said that he "preferred painting the eyes of human beings to painting cathedrals, as the soul lived in the eyes", a painter who thought he "saw infinity in the eyes of a small child", and for whom "hope could be found in the stars", in the infinity of the azure blue, nightly starry sky. The infinite expanse of the landscapes in his pictures and his simultaneous being wrapped up in it as an individual spot, as a "speck of dust", as he puts it, in the mysterious divinity of creation outline the wide range that his paintings try to capture and reflect. [...]

"There is something infinite in painting", he says, and "there are hidden things of harmony or contrast in the colours, things that have an effect by themselves and that cannot be expressed by another medium." This is exactly what I think about music – I say "there is something infinite in sound", and "there are hidden things in the notes and harmonies that have an effect by themselves and that cannot be expressed by another medium." [...]

 

WORLD–WHY–DIE II ?
Minutes of Silence

No English Translation available

Open Up !

The composition Open Up ! is the beginning of a new series of editions in which music in a moderate level for lower grades and especially pieces of high quality for beginning and young bands are published. So Open Up ! is a dynamic composition, very useful maybe as an opener for a concert. A great melodic line - which is orchestrated several times in different groups of the orchestra - and some rhythmical counterpoints build up a piece of music full of energy.

A little Walk in the Garden

I got the inspiration for this little composition from the short story "The Japanese Quince" by John Galsworthy in which a beautiful garden plays an important role. A nice melody composed with the first pitches with which the young players start to learn practising their instrument "sings" along with fine harmonies. The piece has two different parts which alternate. In the last phase of the composition a short section of counterpoint imitations with the first motif of the main melody enrich the musical structure and offer possibilities for the conductor to demonstrate structural elements.

 

An Old French Sailor’s Tale

This piece is based on an old French folk song which appears several times with different harmonies in a varied, colorful instrumentation. The musicians will also find some interesting settings in counterpoint structures. With the soft ending the music seeks out distant shores.

Shepherds’ Procession

This composition describes a pastoral scene with the calls of the shepherds in the beginning, musically illustrated in the score as a dialogue between two groups of the orchestra and the following flowing main part in a 6/4 bar. Mainly the piece aptly reflects the atmosphere of Christmas time, and a holiday concert program would be an appropriate opportunity to place this music.

The Wide Open Space
Painting of a Landscape

I composed this piece as a commission work for the Youth Wind Orchestra of a German regional band association which is located in the Vorspessart, a region near the area of Frankfurt. The composition should be appropriate as a test piece for windband competitions. So the piece has different sections with a variety of tempos and textures. The full title of the work "The Wide open Space" - a painting of a landscape - suggests not a specific landscape but may symbolizes  any kind of landscape with a wide horizon - which one, that is up to the listener. The first section has a wide melodic development which has its beginning in the head motive of the primary theme in the dolce clarinets and leads to a climax in full orchestration. The melodicchoral-like theme of this first section disappears after the climax in the instrumentation of the flutes, scored in the low register, and later on more far distant in a solo of the Glockenspiel. A dramatic, rhythmical section follows. Its musical elements developed from the head motive of the primary theme and one can find them in nearly all instruments of the score in a great variety of counterpoints and structures. A short return of the melodic first section can be recognized shortly before the coda with the emphatic final ending. 

STORM
Nature's Retribution

With this piece "I think of horrendous storms and natural catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina as being Nature's answer to the misuse of our environment by careless human beings. So this work is about the storm and its destructive aftermath for people. Maybe nature tries to warn us to stop our irresponsible behavior? – The piece does not depict the human response to a natural disaster; rather it shows nature's retribution for human disregard of their environment. The final chorale represents a human response of hope and encouragement not to give up in finding an answer for the future."

Out of Nowhere

In many mythical stories the magical people appear „Out of Nowhere“.

So in Irish Mythology it’s said that a group of ancient people known as the Túatha Dé Danaan came to Ireland. They came out of heaven or appeared out of the air and threw darkness for three days all over the sun. They drove out the tribes who were living there before and ruled over Ireland a long period of time.

Later in the mythical history of Ireland the Túatha Dé Danaan were conquered themselves by the Milesian tribes at which point they became known as the original Irish Fairies and lived in subterranean domiciles - in the underworld.

They disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared but ruled still out of the life hereafter.  A magical fog hid them from the mortal people.