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Viola
and marimba
Five Songs
from the North of Iceland
Composed
in 2008 at the request of Herdís Anna
Jónsdóttir and Steef van Oosterhout who gave
the first performance in 2009.
The movements
are based on recordings of Icelandic Folk Songs. The names
of the movements are as follows:
1. Let Me
Go, Never Let You Go
2. The Drunkard's Hat is Gone
3. The Raven's Call
4. Fox's Nose Knows
5. The Tears of Lína
Five
Songs from the North of Iceland. The score
(pdf).
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Piano,
4 Hands
4 Songs from
the North-East of Iceland
This work was
composed in 2008 and is dedicated to pianist Anna Gudny
Gudmundsdottir whose family comes from the North-East of
Iceland. It consists of arrangements of four Folk Songs
which can be heard in their original form on the internet
(http://ismus.musik.is). The four movements of the piece
have the following names:
1. Magic on a Mountain Pass
2. Do You Know? (I'll Tell You So)
3. A Tale of Trouble
4. The Snows Have Fled Away.
Anna Gudny and the composer gave the first public
performance of the piece at the Dark Music Days on
the 9th of February 2009 in the Nordic House in
Reykjavik.
4
Songs from the North-East of Iceland. The score
(pdf).
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Bassoon,
violin, viola and cello
The
Funambulist
was composed
in 2007 at the request of Brjánn Ingason and is
dedicated to him. The piece has two movements which are
played without a break between them.
The work was sponsored by Musica Nova in Iceland. -
S.S.B.
The
Funambulist. The score
(pdf).
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Clarinet (in B flat) and
Piano
Cantilena
This piece is
dedicated to clarinetist Óskar Ingólfsson who
gave the first performance in Reykjavik in 1989 the year it
was composed. The piano part was played by the composer. The
piece is in one movement and it is approximately 6 minutes
long.
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List
of Works (chronological)
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Oboe and
piano
Verses
This piece was
composed in 2001 and 2002 for oboist Matthías Birgir
Nardeau (b.1982) and dedicated to him. Matthías
premiered Verses at a concert in the
Salurinnof Kópavogur on March 18th 2003 as he
graduated as a soloist from the Reykjavik College of Music.
The composer played the piano.
The piece has two movements and it is loosely based on
folksongs:
Verses
- the score (pdf).
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Clarinet (in B flat), Cello
and Piano
"...the sky
composes promises..."
This piece was
commissioned by Svenska Rikskonserter in Sweden and
it was composed in 1989. It has 2 movements which are played
without a break and the duration is approximately 12
minutes. The first movement is comprised of 25 short
components all of which are different in length (mostly 4-6
measures) with time signatures constantly changing but the
second movement is comprised of 8 sections all of which are
equally long (12 measures each, no change of meter). The
name of the piece comes from the poem Sunday Skaters,
Reykjavik by American poet Mary Jo Salter.
The piece was first performed at the Stockholm New
Music festival in the spring of 1990. The performers
were Kjell Fagéus (clarinet), Torleif Thedéen
(cello) and Stefan Bojsten (piano).
A
recording of "...the sky composes
promises..."
Performers: Nora Kornblueh (cello), Óskar
Ingólfsson (clarinet) and Snorri Sigfús
Birgisson (piano).
Top
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List
of Works (chronological)
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String
Quartet
String Quartet no.
2
This piece was
composed in 1991 and it was premiered at a concert given by
Caput
in The
Icelandic Art Museum (Listasafn Íslands) on
February 12th 1995. The performers were Auður
Hafsteinsdóttir (violin), Sigurlaug
Eðvaldsdóttir (violin), Helga
Þórarinsdóttir (viola) and
Bryndís Halla Gylfadóttir (cello). These same
artists recorded the piece and this recording is available
on CD (ITM
8-08)
The piece is in three movements which are played without a
break and the duration is approximately 10 minutes. The
first movement is the longest. It is composed of diverse
material which aims at one goal. The second movement is
composed of material which is homogeneous in nature but aims
at several different goals simultaneously and the last
movement is a very short fragment which serves as an
epilogue.
String
Quartet No. 2 - The score
(pdf)
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String Quartet
no. 3
This piece was
commissioned by the Reykjavik Arts Festival for the Brodsky
Quartet. I started composing it in the autumn of 2003 and it
was completed in January of 2004. The duration of the piece
is approx. 12 minutes. It consists of one movement with
independent sections. The first performance was given by the
Brodsky Quartet on May 28th 2004 in Reykjavik.
String
Quartet No. 3 - The score
(pdf)
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Violin and
Piano
Novelette
This piece was
composed in 1993 for violinist Thorhallur Birgisson and is
dedicated to him. The first performance took place in
Reykjavík (Nordic House) on May 14th 1993, the
violin part was played by Thorhallur Birgisson and the piano
part was played by the composer.
Three different
tempos can be heard in this piece and also three tempos that
are twice as slow. The duration is approximately 12
minutes.
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List
of Works (chronological)
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Flute
and Piano
Three Songs from
the East of Iceland
This piece was
composed in 2003 and dedicated to my sister,
Guðrún Sigríður Birgisdóttir,
flutist. She gave the first performance at the Music
Festival Við Djúpið in the summer of
2003. Jónas Ingimundarson played the piano. The piece
consists of three movements and each movement contains a
meditation on an Icelandic folk song. I heard recordings of
the the three songs in the Folkloric Collection of
the The Árni Magnússon Institute
(www.am.hi.is). The individuals, recorded on tape, who sang
the three songs were all from the East of Iceland.
Three
Songs from the East of Iceland - score (pdf)
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Flute
Duo
Side by Side
This piece was
composed in 1995 and is dedicated to the flutists
Guðrún Sigríður Birgisdóttir
and Martial Nardeau who gave the first performance in 1997.
This composition has been revised several times and since
the last revision (in the year 2000) it's name is Side by
Side (originally it had a latin name).
The piece has 4
movements which are played without a break and the duration
is 12 minutes.
Side
by Side - Score (pdf).
5 Icelandic
Folk Songs
These
arrangements dating from 2007 are dedicated to flutist
Martial Nardeau. He, together with Guðrún
Sigríður Birgisdóttir, gave the first
public performance at Gljúfrasteinn in Iceland on
July 19th, 2009.
5
Icelandic Folk Songs - Score
(pdf).
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Two Violas, Cello and Double
Bass
Hymn
Hymn was
originally composed for String Orchestra (1982). The
composer has made several different versions of this
composition. This version for 2 Violas, Cello and Double
bass was made in 1999 and was first performed in
Skálholt Church in Iceland on July 24th the same
year. Þórunn Marinósdóttir and
Herdís Jónsdóttir played violas, Nora
Kornblueh played cello and Hávarður Tryggvason
played Double Bass and the composer conducted.
The piece consists of 11 very short movements which are all
in the Mixolydian mode and are played very slowly.
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Percussion
(3) and Piano
Three
Movements from Benda Concerto
This piece has
3 movements as indicated by the title. It is composed for
three percussion* players and piano. Two of the three
movements (Prelude and Epilogue) are also to be found in
Caput
Concerto no. 2
where they stand in a different context.
The piece was
composed for and dedicated to the three permanent members of
the percussion group Benda: Eggert Pálsson,
Pétur Grétarsson, and Steef van
Oosterhout.
The first
movement, Prelude, is for three percussion players
but Intermezzo and Epilogue are for three
percussion players and piano.
The duration of
Three movements is c.11 minutes.
*Percussion
instruments:
perc. 1:
talking drum, a pair of suspended finger cymbals, 2 cymbals
(M and S - suspended), vibraphone (without motor).
perc. 2: bodhrán, vibraphone (without motor),
large chinese hand cymbal (suspended)*, 2 dobachi (large),
wood block, bongos.
perc. 3: darabouka, marimba.
Three
Movements from Benda Concerto - The score
(pdf)
Three
Movements from Benda Concerto - List of instruments etc.
(pdf)
*cymbal
with big dome producing "sparkling", "scintillating"
sound
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Percussion (1) and
Piano
Five Poems
This piece was
composed in 2008 and is dedicated to percussionist
Pétur Grétarsson. Pétur and the
composer premiered the piece in the Sigurjón
Ólafsson Museum on August 25th 2009.
Duration: 14'30''.
The names of the five movements are:
1. Behold My Love
2. Let Me Go, Never Let You Go
3. In Praise of Cathrine
4. Burning with Love
5. Lover’s Lament
Five
Poems - The Score (pdf)
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Trumpet and
Piano
Ari from
Unnarstadir
for trumpet in
C (or Bb) and piano was composed in 2001 and revised in
2006. It is dedicated to Jóhann Nardeau who premiered
the piece at his graduation recital from the The
Reykjavik College of Music on May 10th 2006. The
composer played the piano.
Ari at Unnarstadir is a meditation on an Icelandic
folk song.
Ari
from Unnarstadir - The score
(pdf).
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4
Cellos (or Cello ensemble)
Lilja
In the summer
of 2004 a seminar for young cellists took place in
Gambrils, a small town in the vicinity of Barcelona.
A few Icelandic cello students took part in the seminar
together with local students. One of the teachers of the
seminar was Richard Talkowsky who asked me to arrange an
Icelandic folk song, Lilja, for the group, which I
did. The arrangement was premiered at the end of the
seminar. It can be performed by 4 cellos or cello
ensemble.
Lilja
- score (pdf)
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