|
Post by David Unger on Sept 1, 2017 4:37:25 GMT
I am a father of two which takes up most of my time. Apart from that I teach music at pre-college level and specialise in classical singing, aural training and music history. I also conduct the male choir and teach composition at beginners level. And third, whatever time is left I use for creative activities; composing music, writing poetry, painting in acrylic. My worklist mainly consists of formal practise pieces in different genres (one fugue, ond sonata, one nocturne, one... and so on) and many of them have a pedagogical purpose in my teaching. But I also write art songs and that is where I think I have done some of my best work. To hear my music click the following links. Art songs: soundcloud.com/davidunger/sets/art-songs-by-david-unger-1Instrumental music: soundcloud.com/davidunger/sets/instrumental-music-by-david
|
|
|
Post by Dave Dexter on Sept 1, 2017 18:36:42 GMT
Choral specialist eh . . . little more unusual, I like it. Great to have you here.
|
|
|
Post by Mike Hewer on Sept 2, 2017 9:41:23 GMT
Hi David,
I had a quick listen to some of your work and enjoyed the Adagio for sop and piano very much. A simple yet affecting setting that I thought was well done.
Just out of curiosity, did you seek permission from the publishers of the poetry you set, to publish online? I ask because I have a song cycle that I'd like to publish, but I was going to approach the publishers first to get permission. I have set some big names to music, Auden, Cummings et al and did not want to get into trouble.
Mike.
|
|
|
Post by Bob Porter on Sept 2, 2017 15:33:10 GMT
Well, copyright laws being what they are, you really should contact the owner of the material you use.
|
|
|
Post by David Unger on Sept 2, 2017 19:42:06 GMT
To be honest - in this case, no. But the laws in Sweden are somewhat unclear. I have asked for a permission to use the text and been granted one. That gives me the right to use and perform the text and gain royalty for performances and recordings. However it does not automatically grant me permission to record it for commercial purposes, but since this recording is not in itself commercial (that is: sold to collect an income) other than it can be used to promote me and my music it is generally accepted although on the border of what is legal. However the poet has been dead for about fifty years (copyright is though still held 70 years after the death of the author) and almost forgotten in the general memory here in Sweden (though famous in his day) so the risk was small in my case. But as mentioned erlier this is a gray area where the laws aren't clear in my country.
|
|
|
Post by David Unger on Sept 2, 2017 20:07:47 GMT
Also, Mike.
A great thanks for giving it a listen! I am glad you enjoyed it (although I imagine you understood little of what was sung)! It is written with a big hint towards the beautiful songs of Wilhelm Stenhammar (who also set this very poem to music) of whom I am a great admirer.
(the story actually goes that an opera singer whom I accompanied from the piano in a concert said that he wanted to sing Stenhammar's song because of the beautiful lyrics, but he wasn't quite pleased with the musical setting. Therefore he asked me to set the poem to music in a more suitable fashion (in his view), so I gave it a try. However I am not the one to judge whether or not I succeeded. To be asked to set a poem to music in a better way than one of our great historic national masters of music (Stenhammar has the position of a Schubert in Austria or Brahms in Germany when it comes to Swedish art song) was to say the least a daunting task. But without making a comparison to the setting of Stenhammar (which I myself value a lot) I was actually quite pleased with the result and ended up writing a small cycle of songs to the poetry of Bo Bergmam. The song Stjärnöga (also set by Stenhammar) on my Soundcoud is also from that very cycle where it is the first song (Adagio is the third) out of the five included. The other three have unfortunately not yet been performed.)
|
|
|
Post by Mike Hewer on Sept 3, 2017 7:28:45 GMT
Just had a listen to Stjärnöga and der Konig. Both very effective and well written - I'm guessing that Schubert and Schumann are amongst your favourites. Actually Schumann is one of my favourites too, I have ploughed through the Symphonic Etudes in my time. I will post my song cycle when (if?) I get permissions sorted. My language is a few centuries forwards of yours - more Britten, Tippet, Shostakovich and Dutilleux. BTW speaking of Britten, have you heard any of his and Pears' recordings? His accompanying is about as close to perfection as is possible imo. Did you know he was called the greatest accompanist on earth by Gerald Moore, whom many considered to be the greatest accompanist on earth.
|
|