| IDIOCLICK | 2014 solo violin 13'
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In Idioclick the performer and his instrument become one. All the music stems from certain gestural patterns of the performer applied to the instrument taken as a sound source defined only by its physical characteristics. I believe noise has never had a bigger part in my work, although it is very soft most of the time. And when pitches appear they start acting almost as just a new type of noise, but they also evoke a distant memory in the instrument's history. Idioclick was commissioned and premiered by Sif Tulinius. Due to the low dynamic level of much of the sounds, the performer should consider using a very carefully balanced amplification. There are halls where this is not necessary. The piece was premiered in a 300 seat hall without amplification, with good results.
| PREGNANT | 2014 for violin, viola, cello, percussion and saxophone quartet 8’30”
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Pregnant was composed on commission from Deutschlandfunk and the Musikhochschule Köln to complete a program which carried the title 1914-2014. My original intention was to use a popular German melody from 1914 as material but in the final result the only remnant of it was a D major chord which begins the saxophone part. The question is what the pregnancy of this chord entails.
main performances
Ludwig Museum, Köln, April 3, 2014 (Ensemble 20/21)
Wuppertal, June 4,
| FINAL THEME from the film In each man's dream his downfall looms |2013 for solo piano and orchestra 15'
orchestra: 3333-4331-4perc-harp-strings:88886
(registered under its Icelandic title: LOKALAGIÐ úr kvikmyndinni Í draumi sérhvers manns er fall hans falið)
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This piece was composed upon request from Víkingur Heiðar Ólafsson. It deals with the relation between piano and orchestra on different levels, both dramaturgically and musically. One of my main tasks was to combine the chromatic nature of the keyboard with a microtonal surrounding in the orchestra. This was done by choosing a popular Icelandic melody and reading its pitches as components in distorted sound spectra but also by establishing a very strict system of action and reaction between the two. We might also say that four aspects of sound are distinct but interrelated in the piece: Triadic harmony, diatonic materials, chromatic materials and finally spectral or microtonal materials. The film the title refers to is imaginary.
main performances
Reykjavík, April 19 2013, as part of the Tectonics festival (Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov)