COMPOSITIONS
contact von@vonhansenmusic.com
Soloist
Breath 2023 (Marimba and Fixed Media)
Breath draws inspiration from the vocal legacies of Inuit and Tuvan cultures, wherein performers craft unprecedented textures and harmonics through the human voice. Tuvan throat singing intertwines with animism, utilizing harmonics, whistles, and guttural sounds to emulate spirits. Inuit throat singing, a female duo tradition, emerged as a pastime during male hunts, aiming to outlast each other in breath. Resonating rhythmic, harmonious panting evokes nature and daily life. This composition fuses samples of traditional performers with electronic and natural sounds, conjuring a soundscape with a warm, natural aesthetic that harmonizes with the marimba's profound timbre.
Breath was commissioned by a consortium lead by Ji Hye Jung
Listen to Breath
$15
Anything Worthwhile is Perishable 2019 (Vibraphone and fixed media)
Anything Worthwhile is Perishable uses randomized echoes and manipulated repetitions to create a lush soundscape. Several notes on the vibraphone are “prepared” by placing various metallic objects on the keys. The buzzing this creates mimics the mbira, a traditional African instrument associated with the Shona people of Zimbabwe. This movement starts with an mbira solo and the scale used by the performer is based on the traditional Nyamaropa tuning of the mbira.
Anything Worthwhile is Perishable was commissioned by a consortium lead by Matthew Lau
Performance Video of AWP
$15
Gr@w£ix 2019 (Vibraphone and fixed media)
Gr@w£ix (Grawlix) uses loops in a similar way to DJs and other live performers. Material is played, recorded and played back while a something new is recorded on top of this loop. This process continues any number of times to stack material and create the effect of multiple players from just one person. The material of Gr@w£ix is inspired by electronic dance music fused with a contemporary percussion style. The term grawlix refers to a string of typographical symbols (such as %@$&*!) used in place of an obscenity, especially in comic strips.
Gr@w£ix was commissioned by a consortium lead by Matthew Lau
Performance video of Gr@w£ix
$15
Suite for Prepared Vibraphone 2010 (Prepared Vibraphone)
Suite for Prepared Vibraphone is a series of pieces composed for a vibraphone with various objects affixed to or placed between the bars. This composition was inspired by John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano (1946-1948). Similar to Cage’s work I strived to make a multi-moment work in which the feel of each movement is a drastically different. The idea of creating angular, articulate music, introspective resonant music and intensely aggressive music from the same set of preparations was an exciting challenge.
Oblique, Transcendent, Incessant Performance video
Life is Sweet on the Edge of a Razor Performance video
PURCHASE Published by C. Alan Publications
One for the Land 2015 (Piano and fixed media )
Emily Grabinski requested a love letter to Cleveland through the voice of the King of Cleveland Lebron James. Audio from Lebron James Mic'd up During Game 2 vs Hawks is sliced up into an athletic, hard-grooving duo for pianist and Lebron. Commissioned by Emily Grabinski
Performance video
$15
It’s Like the Nothing Never Was 2013 (Any instrument and computer )
This work is meant to encourage interaction between performer and computer by creating an electroacoustic soundscape without the use of prerecorded material. The performer is given guidelines and is encouraged to engage the randomized computer processing through improvisation.
PErformance directions
Multiple Percussion Realization video
Cello Realization video (Kivie Cahn-Lipman performer)
$15
Percussion Chamber Music
Mortal Coil 2023 (14 Percussion and Piano)
Mortal Coil was written five years after the death of my father Jim Hansen. He spent his last few days as he wished, at home with his family. I found the sounds of the breathing machines to be poignant and representative of the final breaths I would hear from my dad. I recorded the air compressors with the thought that someday I would use them in a piece written for him (this is the recording you hear at the beginning of the piece). In December 2022 I found myself ready to write this piece. The benefit of time allowed me a new perspective on these final days with my dad as well of the role of the compressors. As I relistened to these recordings I found myself with conflicting feelings of sadness and loss with a sense of thankfulness for the compressors and their ability to allow my father and our family to have our last moments.
James (Jimmy) D. Hansen - December 9, 1949 - December 31, 2017
This obit was written by Jimmy Hansen himself.
I want to let the people I know and was close to, and also knew but chose not to associate with, or they with me, that I have left this mortal coil. In lieu of flowers or I am glad you are gone you old reprobate, please make a donation to your local public radio or TV station and then actually watch PBS or listen to NPR occasionally!
#couldntwaitforthemeteorite
#E=mc²
#littleswissarmyknife
#hibernatingnow
#musicisacommentaryonsociety
Mortal Coil was commissioned by Andrew Spencer and the Central Michigan University Percussion Ensemble.
$40
Fresh Frozen Plasma 2024 (11 percussion)
Piles of grooves in uncommon meters have never felt so good. Drum and bass percussion mixed with crunchy keyboard chords and textures galore from the percussion section create an exiting and challenging groove based ensemble.
Listen to Fresh Frozen Plasma
$40
Trinket (8-20+ Percussionists)
This is a great modular piece that can be played by groups of many different sized groups. There are 8 core parts and 12 optional parts and doubling of keyboard parts is encouraged. You can get your whole ensemble on stage playing at the same time. This is a beginner-intermediate level piece that presents an achievable challenge.
$40
The Breaks 2017 (5 Percussion and Fixed Track)
Inspired by the IDM music of artists such as Squarepusher and Venetian Snares, The Breaks has relentless energy and gritty break beats played on prepared drums (frying pans, tambourines, cymbals, etc. placed on the drums) marimba and vibraphone. The live instruments are accompanied by an electronic track that would fit in at a stadium full of glow sticks and a DJ with a psychedelic raccoon head.
Commissioned by Washburn Rural High School
PERFORMANCE VIDEO
PURCHASE Published by C. Alan Publications
Ad Astra 2008 (mallet sextet)
The opening gains a great deal of its influence from Steve Reich’s Nagoya Marimbas in the sense that all of the instruments blend amorphously to form a single sound rather than emphasizing any one instrument. By using composite rhythms and changes in time signature the sense of a down beat is masked until specific points within the piece. The central section of this piece contains a greater exploration of texture. The melodic interest weaves its way through the ensemble while still keeping the sense of the musical “sets.” During this section the intensity is greatly increased leading up to the first unison passage of the piece. From this point there is a series of sections which move between six person amorphous texture and the weaving melodic material. This creates an increase in tension which builds to an unexpected end.
Commissioned by the Washburn Percussion Collective
Performance video
PURCHASE Published by C. Alan Publications
Lenses 2010 (harp and 4 percussion)
Based on a poem by Jim Carroll, antiphonal percussionists playing hand crank music boxes, buckets of water, prayer bowls and various other percussion instruments accompany a harp soloist to evoke a lush dreamscape.
$40
Luminous Vortices 2018 (4 percussion and Electronics)
The original composition is written for an all glass instrumentation (glass marimbas, glass gongs, glass udu drums, glass prayer bowls and more) that RELA percussion created as a residency with the Toledo Museum of Art. This unique instrumentation is processed live creating a ever-evolving soundscape that swirls and engulfs the audience in rich textures.
Though the original instrumentation is for glass percussion this piece can be played on traditional percussion instruments.
Commissioned by RELA Percussion
Performance Directions
Performance video
$40
Even This Will Change 2017 (24 Percussionists)
Written for the 2017 Kansas Lion Band percussion section, Even this Will Pass has 24 unique parts that interlock to create a melody on tuned pipes and desk bells and a groove played on drums and junk percussion. All parts have very simple rhythms that when combined create a complex texture. This piece is very easy to learn and very rewarding when complete. This would be a great piece for beginning to intermediate percussion players.
Score
Performance Video
$40
Evolve 2007 (five percussionists and piano)
Evolve is a multi-movement work which is played without a break between movements. This composition was written in 2007 during the height of the Iraq war, when the aggressive nature of war and the struggle for power was more apparent than any other time in my life. The poetry which follows should guide the listener through this scene.
score
I. In the Beginning Her Tears Were the Long Awaited Rains
The beginning of the world, of life.
Primordial ooze bubbles and teems with activity.
The future is uncertain. All is at ease.
II. The Best of Man is Like Water
Man appears from the uncertainty. Life is harmony.
There is no hate, no war, only life and curiosity.
III. Some Say the World Will End in Fire
Man’s curiosity leads him to create. Fire is a necessity.
Harmony begins to deteriorate.
Life is a struggle to hold the fire.
IV. Immense Power Cannot be Terrorized
The struggle leads to more vicious creations.
War is the norm. Life is chaos.
The future is dismal.
V. Sunlight is a Lie
The ultimate form of destruction is created.
Bombs rain from the sky like tears.
The fire is extinguished.
Man’s future ends here.
VI. Whispers of Immortality
From destruction comes resurrection.
The future is uncertain. All is at ease.
$40
Large Ensemble
Guitar Breath 2016 (Middle school band and fixed track)
Unleash your students inner rock star with a piece that is just a whole pile of fun for young players.
Commissioned by Ross Elementary School and Eisenhower Middle School Combined Band
$60
Fixed Media
Welcome to the United States 2010 (electroacoustic soundscape)
A cynical look at America through a dirty magnifying glass.
November Site 2009 (electroacoustic soundscape)
A journey through Gordon Sherman’s Painting November Site.
November Site- Gordon Sherman
Interactive Electronics
MapMusik 2018
Interactive sound installation and compositions
Shared Shadow 2015
Interactive musical video game
Commissioned by Harvester Arts
Sound Shadow 2014
Interactive sound installation
Commissioned by The Spencer Art Museum