Poul Ruders

Symphony No. 5 by Poul Ruders.Commissioned by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestrafor World Premiere on January 9 2015.

Corpus Cum Figuris is a uniform composition in three major parts. The first part is a slow marche funébre a kind of prologue with dark and sombre sounds and a massive wall of chords which leads us to the other part of the works where the static and solemn atmosphere is suddenly stopped and replaced by a rhythmic/melodic ritual which accelerates the music. In the third part the block structure is softened gradually different figurations and stylistic elements arise to live their own lives: distant waltzes and pictures from the Middle Ages appear in this gigantic sonorous body. After a wild percussion orgy a short flash-back and a scream from the edge end Corpus cumFiguris. The piece has no literal content at all even though the title leads the thought to Adrian Leverkühn?s Apocalipsis cum Figuris from Thomas Mann?s Doctor Faustus. More likely my piece will arouse associations as with all my music. It has to be heard in it?s own conditions in this case as a big body of music or perhaps as a great screen where the details of course are part of the whole body but at the same time are foreign and odd. It is as if one climbs a mountain and from the top of that mountain discovers a world which is completely different from expected. Corpus cum Figuris for 20 musicians was composed in 1984 commissioned by Ensemble InterContemporain and the Danish Radio. Ensemble InterContemporain world premiered the work in April 1985 conducted by Peter Eötvös. The piece was also played at the ISCM-festival in Amsterdam by Netherland Radio Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ernest Bour.

POD-Fanfares And Chorales for Brass Ensemble was composed by Poul Ruders in 2016. Commissioned by the Royal Danish Academy of Music and professor Jesper Juul Windahl in celebration of RDAM´s 150th anniversary in 2017.

Tundra - A Hommage To Jean Sibelius was commissioned by the Helsinki Philharmonics to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of Jean Sibelius. The work was world premiered in Helsingfors 7th December 1990 and repeated the next day on Sibelius’ date of birth in his native town.

This short orchestral piece is a tone poem based on a passage from one of Hans Christian Andersen’s lesser known fairytales THE WIND TELLS ABOUT WALDEMAR DAAE AND HIS DAUGHTERS a mighty allegory about the transitoriness of Life about Vanity and Pride and the inevitable victory of Death (alias the wind) whose scything ravaging is sublimely depicted by Andersen in these few truly breathtaking lines: 'And Winter rushed Winter and Summer they rushed and they rush like I rush like the howling snow the flurrying apple blossom the scurrying foliage; rush! rush! The people too!'

Premiered at the festival 'Magma Berlin 2002' by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by David Robertson 29th November 2002.3 Flutes 1st and 2nd also Alto Flutes in G 3rd also Piccolo3 Oboes 3rd also Cor Anglais in F3 Clarinets in Bb 3rd also Bass Clarinet in Bb3 Bassoons 3rd also Contra Bassoon4 Horn in F3 Trumpets in Bb3 Trombones1 TubaTimpani4 Percussion four playersPlayer 1 - Vibraphone Glockenspiel Water Chime Bell Tree Japanese Wood Blocks Cymbal (Suspended) TamTam (Medium)Player 2 - Triangle Tubular Bells Crotales Marimba Chinese CymbalPlayer 3 - TamTam (Large) Java Gong(Large very low) Bell Lyra (Handheld) Sizzle CymbalPlayer 4 - Bass Drum Glockenspiel Xylophone1 Harp1 Piano also CelestaStrings - 16/14/12/10/8All transposing instruments are notated in their relevant transpositions.Any accidental apply only to the note that it immediately precedes except tied notes.Naturals appear occasionally 'for safety'.'LISTENING EARTH' is a symphonic drama a one- movement composition in four parts based on the work by two writers Joseph Addison (1672-1719) and W.H.Auden (1907-1973). Joseph Addison is not particularly well known; he was English a classical scholar essayist poet and politician but one of his hymns was used by Benjamin Britten. in his setting of a Thomas Tallis canon.The hymn is singularly beautiful and being a composer always inspired by extramusical stimuli such as poems nature paintings I was immediately convinced when I carne across the Addison hymn that here was exactly what I wanted to use as my major source of inspiration for this piece commissioned by and written for The Berlin Philharmonic. I don't refer to the hymn in its entirety but have chosen the following 3 excerpts all acting as mottos for the first three sections of the piece thus turning the piece into a straightforward tonepoem in the classical

The full score of Ruders' first Symphony subtitled Himmelhoch jauchzend - zum Tode betrübt. Written for large orchestra.

For Orchestra. Premiered by The Royal Danish Orchestra conducted by Michael Schonwandt Koncerthuset DR 29th May 2009.Commissioned by and written for The Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress.Dedicated to the memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky.Instrumentation.3 Flutes 3rd doubling Piccolo3 Oboe 3rd doubling Cor Anglais3 Clarinets in Bb 3rd doubling Bass Clarinet In Bb3 Bassoons 3rd doubling Contra Bassoon4 Horns in F3 Trumpets in Bb3 Trombones1 Tuba3 Percussion (three players)1 - Triangle Mark Tree Tubular Bells TamTam (Large) Glockenspiel Snare Drum Lion's Roar.2 - TamTam (Large) Chinese Cymbal Spring Coil (Mounted) TamTam (Large) Reco-Reco.3 - Bass Drum (Large) Antique Cymbals (full range) Spring Coil (mounted) TamTam (large) Cymbal (suspended) Reco-Reco.The three large TamTams should differ slightly in pitch.Strings (minimum 16-14-12-10-8)

Poul Ruders' Handel Variations for Orchestra (2009) -Ninety Symphonic Reflections on Eight Bars by Georg Friedrich Handel.Commissioned by and dedicated to the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra in celebration of their 75th anniversary 2010. Premiered by The Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by Giancarlo Andretta at the Aarhus Concert Hall 14 January 2010. Programme noteThe short feisty Bourrée from Handel´s famous Water Music (First Suite in F major) has for some years been hovering at the back of my mind as possessing the perfectpotential for a series of variations. Not unlike the short 'morsel' by Henry Purcell (the witches Ho-ho-ho-chorus from the opera Dido and Aeneas) which kicks off the ten variations of my orchestral work Concerto in Pieces the music per se is not particularly interesting but it nevertheless grows on you and is difficult to get rid of. It is merely a handful of sequences (a technique much used in the Baroque era - a method in which the same motif is being shifted up and down in a specified order). Actually it is only the first eight bars of the Bourrée which I haul through the wringer.It would be obvious to assume that Handel Variations make up a sequel to Concerto in Pieces but in spite of the similarity in character between the two chosen themes the Handel Variations are far more symphonically coherent. There are no less than ninety (!) variations and each variation (they are relatively short ranging from four up to forty-something bars) runs seamlessly into the next creating a huge symphonic body of constantly changing colours. I set out with the original theme without interfering but the 'erosion' begins to gnaw away at the theme already from the first variation. Imagine a vast gallery of Handel portraits in which Georg Friedrich appears at first fully recognizable but then the 'disfiguration' sets in and

Light Overture - A Symphonic Entertainment was composed by Poul Ruders in 2006. Commissioned by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and Music Director and Principal Conductor Justin Brown for Alabama Power Company’s 100 Year Anniversary Concert. Light Overture subtitled A Symphonic Entertainment is a short piece for symphony orchestra lasting approximately eight minutes. Light Overture is focusing on two interpretations of the word light: ”light” as in the absence of darkness and “light” as in easily comprehensible; in other words a piece with few or no metaphysicalconnotations. It is just a piece setting a festive mood as is often the case with this sort of short “concert opener”. However the journey through Light Overture is not entirely happy-go-lucky. Once in a while slightly darker colours are introduced for the sake of variety and contrast. And formally the composition is quite strict: an outright Prelude and Fugue the former sliding seamlessly into the latter. The Fugue juggles not only its own tune but also picks up stuff from the Prelude. Poul Ruders May 2006

New York is the city which fascinates and inspires Ruders. Time and again he goes back there to work. 'Manhattan Abstraction' (1982) subtitles - a symphonic skyline for large orchestra - was conceived there. Ruders’ Brittish colleague Oliver Knussen defines the piece as: - a performance of an extraordinary Morden-Times-like construction. It is a sort of symphonic sculpture which in the composer’s own words words propels forth from one particular inspiration: the New York profile as seen from Liberty Island one icy cold January day with it’s open clear sky and dazzling sun light. 'Manhatten Abstraction' appears as an amalgam of some of the compositorical habits foundin present pieces. For instance are present here compositorical ideas and melodic loans from 'Capriccio Pian’e Forte' 2nd String Quartet(1979) 'Four Compositions' (1980) and 2nd Piano Sonata(1982). The question at hand is mainly concerned with the enhanced elaboration of Ruders’ use of the classic English change-ringing system: a permuting method pre-determining the order of tone-appearances and /or tone groups; a serial technique in other words. In spite of the rigidly fixed material Ruders somehow manages to chisel out a personal expression by way of emphasising contrasting elements already existing within the material itself. The spiky repetitive sections form a counterpart to a more human violin-solo. This dialectical tension is - as hinted by the title - a symphonic abstraction of a fascinating metropolis; the most beautiful and the ugliest. The subtitle: a symphonic skyline reflects the musical erection of the Manhattan profile which under the clear sky materializes into the most powerful and compelling man-made sculpture on earth. Thus 'Manhattan Abstraction' is a homage to as well as a vision of this giant contraption of concrete glass and chrome.