I feel very honored to be able to do a review about the contemporary classical music site of Frederik Magle. Frederik Magle is a composer, concert organist and pianist based in Denmark. His works are mainly modern tonal-based classical and film music. Frederik Magel has composed a variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles as well as solo music for violin and piano. His work stretches across genres from full orchestral works to modern electronica.
All items reviewed in this post are available for download on the site with but you will need to register on the Magle International Music Forums to gain access to all works (access is free). This works quite nicely as you can discuss the works further online.
There were around 10-12 tracks available online, but I have selected four to review on JGoth.com – Rising of a New Day, The Shadow, Far Away and Lullaby.
Rising of a New Day is a powerful piece bursting with energy with lively strings and brass alluding to the moment the sun breaks the horizon with all the promise of a new day. There is a quieter interlude perhaps alluding to the still-sleeping creatures, before the sunburst sequence returns again. The piece culminates with drums and finally the music quickens its tempo to exude the feeling that the day has truly arrived. I find it to be an inspiring piece reminding me that every new day has the potential to be a great day. This song is only available in the Forum so you will need to register to listen. Another interesting light-themed piece is Let there be Light, a heavier piece available here. However, I personally find Rising of a New Day the more satisfying of the two to listen to and worth registering to get access to.
The second piece is Skyggen (The Shadow), one of 20 songs based on fairytales by Hans Christian Andersen on the album Sangen er et eventyr (The Song is a Fairytale). The Shadow is a vocal piece backed by cello, piano and bass. It is an interesting piece, capturing the fantasy tale’s essence. However, the vocals are in Danish so I was unable to fully appreciate the track. You can find this track and Fra et vindue i Vartorv (From a window in Vartorv) on the main site here.
One of my favorite tracks on Frederik Magel’s site has to be Far Away, an ominous piece of electronica. Starting slow there is a feeling that something dark is approaching. Then it breaks out into gamboling keyboards as the darkened being comes into view. It is a fine piece of work that captured my imagination especially in the fast-tempo sections with keys and percussion playing off each other. About two-thirds of the way in the music lets up before unleashing a high-tempo, more uplifting tone. I definitely recommend taking a look at this piece through the forums here - remember you need to register first before getting access to tracks released on the forums.
The final track I looked at is Lullaby. As the title suggests this is a very peaceful piano work. Its tempo is slow to begin with and slowly fades to lull you to sleep.
There are plenty of other downloads on this site and I would recommend anyone looking for more modern classical works to take a look at this site. My favorite was Far Away, but many more tracks have found their way to my iPod this weekend.
Links:
Frederik Magle’s site
Frederik Magle downloads
Magle International Music Forums
