Category Archives: Compositions

Freshly out: Sonata elettrica

21 Friday Aug 2020

Posted by in Compositions

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One of the most fortunate moves in my activity as a composer was to make my sheet music freely available on the internet. Numerous performances and recordings resulted from that decision, simply because performers or conductors looking for new repertoire are likely to browse IMSLP and other websites for a particular genre or combination of instruments. While I hesitate to encourage fellow composers to do the same since I realise there might be reasons not to upload one’s music for free, this is what works out fine for me. On that note, I invite you to have a look at my latest composition, Sonata elettrica for amplified guitar and piano, the typesetting of which I have just completed. It is a virtuoso showpiece in a somewhat uncommon instrumentation, calling for a classically-trained electric guitarist who takes joy in some adventurous duo musicking. Thanks go to Siamak Sattari who expertly helped me elaborate the guitar part.

wendelinbitzan_sonataelettrica

 

Composing with Students

02 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by in Compositions, Teaching

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My participation in the music theatre education project YOUR_Street.Scene at Magdeburg Theatre has come to a successful conclusion. It was fun to supervise the creative process which resulted in a collaborative composition by a number of students of International School Pierre Trudeau in Barleben. We ended up with a four-minute score for six instruments, originally intended as an overture for an outdoor scenario in loose reference to Kurt Weill’s opera Street Scene. Due to the current circumstances we were unable to present a live performance of the music. Instead, two video trailers have been produced as a documentation of the musical and choreographic work.

Turn of the Year

23 Monday Dec 2019

Posted by in Compositions, Events

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Happy holiday season to all of you, regardless of what you celebrate these days, and a pleasant end of the year! Here is a little thing that I wanted to share with you: a live recording of the most recent performance of my music. Petra Vidmar and Erazem Grafenauer of Duo Xylocorda appear in the duo suite At the Forest Verge for guitar and marimba, forming part of a concert in Ljubljana Town Hall, Slovenia, in October 2019. Hope you listen with as much delight as I did. So long—see you in 2020!

A Musical Valediction

24 Sunday Nov 2019

Posted by in Compositions, Events

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Yesterday I attended the farewell party of the former Chamber Choir of the Berlin University of the Arts in which I participated and performed during the last fourteen years. It was an affectionate and communicative gathering of the most recent choir members. My contribution was to present Max Reger‘s Nachtlied, Op. 138 No. 3, in my own piano transcription (please find the sheet music of my version here, as well as the choir’s recording of the original piece). This composition, one of my all-time favourites in the choral repertoire, represents some unforgettable memories related to music-making which I am grateful to share with my dear colleagues.

Music for Voices

18 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by in Compositions, General

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Pleased to announce two new contributions of vocal music:
(1) Last year I dedicated a composition named Silbensalat to my son Lionel as a gift to his fourth birthday. The work comprises four canons in different combinations of voices, scales, and intervals, and is set to lighthearted texts about Lionel’s most beloved things and activities. Just in time before he turned five today, I finally managed to complete the sheet music of the pieces, which is available here.
(2) Fascinated by the delicate and imaginative music of singer-songwriter Eleni Irakleous aka Eleni Era, I recently arranged two of her tunes, Beautiful Moon and Big Star, for solo voice and SATB mixed chorus. Sheet music is provided here by courtesy of the artist. You can listen to the original songs at this place.