(1997, rev.98/99 and 2003) for 2-2-2-2-4-2-3-0-2-solo tuba - strings (www.nb.no) (dur: 15:00) First performed by Frode Amundsen in Oslo 1998, Official world premiere in Trondheim 2003. Slightly revised before the second performance of the work in Malmø in april 2004 with Frode and Malmø SO. Frode played it again in May 2006 with Umeå SO
Recorded by Eirik Gjerdevik/Pleven Filharmoniske Orkester/Bjørn Breistein, dir. (LAWO classics)
(1998) Tubakvartett i tre satser «Pas de quatre» (Dans for fire), «Meditation» og «The Tuba shall sound». Det var obligatorisk verk i finalen i International Tuba-Euphonium Association «Quartet Competition» 2001. Efflorescent ble komponert for kvartetten Tubalaté, med støtte fra Komponistenes Vederlagsfond (Composers´Remuneration Fund).
Block ble komponert til Arctic Tuba Quartet da de besøkte den internasjonale tuba- og euphoniumkonferansen i Linz i Østerrike, i 2012. Stykket er en enkel sats som blandt annet utforsker blokkharmonisering, en enkel og effektiv satsteknikk, som klinger fascinerende med store instrument i lav register. Det er óg noe av tubakvartetten sin egenart: Få ensembler kan, eller kanskje ingen ensembler, forme slike massive klangblokker.
Kharon er fergemannen de gamle grekere mente fraktet de døde over elven Styx, elven som alle døde måtte over på vei til Hades.
I 2003 komponerte jeg Bloodaxe Lament for Tuba and Brass Band for Eirik Gjerdevik, som finnes på hans CD «Eirik the Viking». Lament-temaet som opprinnelig var en slags refleksjon over det faktum at også den verste despot, må ha en bevissthet om døden, blir nå til sangen som synges for dødsrikes fergemann. Slik Orfeus i følge myte gjorde det da han klarte å fri sin kjære Euridice fra dødsrike ved å synge. Det endte ikke lykkelig, som vi alle vet.
Klagesang har en lang tradisjon musikalsk sett, en slags arketype blant musikalske ytringer. Men også i litterære uttrykk som strekker seg tilbake til greske diktverk, bl.a. Iliaden og Odyseen og Det Gamle Testamentet.
Samarbeidet mellom Eirik Gjerdevik strekker seg over mange år og mange verk. Etter at han har spilt inn alle mine soloverk for tuba, inkludert tubakonserten "The Cry of Fenrir" på to plater, forsker vi også litt på krysningen akustisk instrument (tuba) og elektronikk. Idéen er at elektronikk og instrument har samme materialmessige utgangspunkt, men at verket blir et samspill – en duett - mellom de to.
Commissioned by Sérgio Carolino in 2016. It was first performed during the low brass festival Gravissimo in Alcobaça, Portugal in 2017 by Sérgio Carolino and Gene Pokorny on Tuba and Telmo Marques on piano. It is released on the record TNT - Tuba'N Tuba.
The norse god Odin had two ravens. Every morning they flew out and observed what was going on in the world. In the evening they sat on Odins shoulders whispering the news. Because of the two ravens Odin was they most powerful of all gods in Asgard. Hugin was thought, Munin was memory.
Arctic Pastorale and Dance is a duo for Euphonium and Tuba written for Tormod Flaten and Eirik Gjerdevik in 2016. The piece was first performed at the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee (USA) the same year.
I have always been fond of the sound of low brass instruments. The richness in timbre and the great ambitus is really inspiring, still there is so much more to discover. In Arctic Pastorale and Dance I explore colours and combination of sounds by using the extreme span in register of the two instruments. The technique used could be described as something between a two voice countepoint and heterphony.
In many of my pieces I refer to nature. Arctic Pastorale and Dance is no exeption in that matter. I spent most of my childhood in the Lofot islands where nature is very present. So it is very natural for me to explore this in a creative way.
Pastorale is a form of music that originally is not connected the the arctic area at all. This pastorale has to be different than what one expect. During the summer when the sun never set and the light is spectacular twentyfour seven it brings life and energy beyound belief. This pastorale is hymn-like, like an adoration.
The dance is also not what it is expected to be. The triplets could suggest something like a tarantella, but it is not. This dance is not a human. It is the forces of nature whirling. So much energy, so much danger, so much joy.
In 2008 Aagaard-Nilsen wrote a quartet for violin, cello, piano, and percussion which he called Blue Fragments. Here he used a little theme as a ritornello, the part of a rondo that is interrupted by contrasting interludes and repeated a num- ber of times in the course of a piece. Blue Fragments was premiered in 2009. Later the same year Aagaard-Nilsen was commissioned to write a piece for tuba and harp by the Portuguese tuba virtuoso Sérgio Carolino. Aagaard-Nilsen wished to use the ritornello theme once again, but this time as a tranquil melody, as found in Music for Blue Days. The composition was premiered by the Norwegian tuba star Eirik Gjerdevik together with harpist Johannes Wik of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded by Eirik Gjerdevik and Anneke Hodnett on Lawo Classics (LWC 1039)
