Wald for Ensemble was composed by Hans Abrahamsen in 2008-09. Co-commission by the Schönberg Ensemble and BBC for Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.Programme NoteWald is in a way a series of variations from the beginning of my woodwind quintet Walden (1978). This thematical idea is very simple - a rising call of a fourth and the response in other voices. This idea is repeated several times but because the call has a slower pulse than the responses the process leads to them changing order.In Walden I borrowed the title from the Americanphilosopher Henry David Thoreau who in the middle of the eighteenth century in a little wooden hermit house at the bank of the lake Walden pond wrote the book Walden of his life and time in the forests. Here he experimented living for two years in order to come closer to nature and to see if it was possible to live simply without all the unnecessary needs created by society. The book is filled with poetry but is also cutting and critical of society. In my piece Walden I tried to search for the same simplicity handling the most simple material but at the same time trying not to lose the poetry.Wald is a twin piece to Walden but also to my former piece Schnee.Robert Schumann wrote in 1848-49 a wonderful piano piece Waldszenen. He wrote this collection of short pieces with beautiful titles like Einsame Blumen Vogel als Prophet and also Jäger auf der Lauer just a few years before Thoreau wrote his book Walden. For them the forest is the magical romantic place that gives a spiritual insight to man but also from where we get our food through hunting. For me the forest still has this magical quality and Wald has scenes with a hunting horn that calls (I many years ago played the magical 'Waldhorn' and remember playing in the forest near my home) flocks of birds that when agitated take

Sinfonia Comatica is a composition by Judith Weir which is scored for flexible ensemble meaning music directors are able to make use of a variety of instruments tailoring the parts to their choseninstrumentation. A truly innovative idea this piece lasts around 1 and a half minutes and includes the Score and Parts. Originally commissioned by Contemporary Music for All (CoMA) it was also premiered bythem on the 25th of October 2014 at St John's Smith Square in London. As for the scoring a chart is included which detailed the range of each part and suggested instruments but the list can be expanded creatively to produceinnovative and unique performances of this work.

Anthem with recorders oboe strings ATB soloists and mixed voice choir.Parts included:Recorder IRecorder IIOboeViolin IViolin IIViolaBassKeyboard