Released by col legno (2023)https://essl.at/records/organologics.html
The album contains the entire organ works by Karlheinz Essl, composed between 1986 and 2021 and recorded by Wolfgang Kogert on the Kuhn organ of the Hofburg Chapel in Vienna. It is the result of a long-term friendship and collaboration, but above all a teamwork that is entirely dedicated to the fascination of this instrument. While Karlheinz Essl draws on well-known songs in his compositions and is inspired by elements from early music to the avant- garde, Wolfgang Kogert interprets the pieces sensitively and with virtuosity. The mezzo-soprano Anna Clare Hauf can be heard as a guest musician. The title “ORGANO/LOGICS” suggests treating the album as a kind of study that opens new approaches to the “queen of instruments” on a compositional and technical level.

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ORGANO/LOGICS

Performed by Wolfgang Kogert at Hofmusikkapelle Vienna. Part of the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023).
The expansion of the note f ("Fa") into a wide octave sound is transformed into a sensual sound process.
https://www.essl.at/records/organologics.html

Prendere il Fa

Prendere il Fa (2021) for organ

Performed by Wolfgang Kogert on the organ of the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna, Austria and singer Anne Clare Hauf. Released on the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023). Part of the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023)
https://essl.at/records/organologics.html
A graphic score created for a performative collaboration with Harald Naegeli, the “Sprayer of Zurich”, is interpreted as an expressive duo for voice and organ. An imaginative exploration of the playing techniques offered by the mechanical organ and the potential of the human voice beyond the bel canto.
Score and more: https://essl.at/works/partikel.html

Partikel-Bewegungen

Partikel-Bewegungen (1991/2016) for organ and voice

Performed by Wolfgang Kogert on the organ of the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna, Austria. Released on the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023) https://essl.at/records/organologics.html
The piece draws its strength from the interaction between constantly changing chord structures, whose harmonic components are made more or less audible by slowly pulling out the stops.
Score and more: http://essl.at/works/unbestimmt.html

unbestimmt

unbestimmt (2020) for organ

Performed by Wolfgang Kogert on the organ of the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna, Austria. Released on the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023) https://essl.at/records/organologics.html
A comment on Karl Hodina’s Viennese song “Hergott aus Sta”, written on the occasion of the inauguration of the giant organ at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. A piece of music whose shimmering harmonics are imbued with the chromatics of the original song, unfolding in a gradual process, like electronic music.
Score and more: http://essl.at/works/herrgott.html

HerrGott!

HerrGott! (2019) for organ

Performed by Wolfgang Kogert on the organ of the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna, Austria. Released on the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023) https://essl.at/records/organologics.html
A retrogressively composed piece for organ, commissioned by Pier Damiano Peretti, which refers to the palindrome "sator arepo" quoted by Anton Webern. The highly chromatic ricercar in six different temporal layers at the centre is flanked by contrapuntal canons and ethereal reed clusters.
Score and more: https://essl.at/works/tenet-opera-rotas.html

tenet opera rotas

tenet opera rotas (2020) for organ

Performed by Wolfgang Kogert on the organ of the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna, Austria. Released on the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023) https://essl.at/records/organologics.html
Music on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Anton Webern’s death in Mittersill, 15 September 2005. The transformation of his final twelve-tone series (allegedly noted down on a circular tabletop) into a computer-generated glockenspiel, transcribed for toy piano respectively organ. Score and more: https://essl.at/works/webernspielwerk.html

WebernSpielWerk

WebernSpielWerk (2005/2020) version for organ

Performed by Wolfgang Kogert on the organ of the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna, Austria. Released on the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023) https://essl.at/records/organologics.html
The transformation of a piece for electric guitar and mezzosoprano that throws together quotes from Purcell’s operas “Oedipus” and “King Arthur” into a trio sonata of baroque appearance featuring a throbbing bass. An image of sound spanning a period of 300 years, telling a story of grief and comfort.
Score and more: https://essl.at/works/purcell-puzzle.html

Puzzle of Purcell

Puzzle Of Purcell (2017/2020) version for organ

A meditative sound trip through “tenet opera rotas” using live electronics, embedded in the original acoustics of the Imperial Castle’s Court Chapel in Vienna. Released on the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023) https://essl.at/records/organologics.html
More information: https://essl.at/works/apres-lavant.html

après l'avant

après l'avant (2021/2022) electronic music

Performed by Wolfgang Kogert on the organ of the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna, Austria. Released on the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023) https://essl.at/records/organologics.html
Palindromic-canonic variations on what is probably the most famous Christmas carol "Silent Night" (Stille Nacht). The score was punched into a tape that could be played in different directions on a mechanical musical clock. It was first adapted for toy piano, then, in collaboration with Wolfgang Kogert, for organ.
Score and more: https://essl.at/works/listen-thing.html

Listen Thing

Listen Thing (2008/2021) version for organ

The first electronic composition of Karlheinz Essl, created 1986 at the University of Music in Vienna. Restored sound with natural room acoustics, re-issued 2022. Released on the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023) https://essl.at/records/organologics.html
My very first piece for organ, albeit electronic, realized while I was still a student at the University of Music in Vienna. A playful exploration of serial and aleatoric composition techniques based on one single organ chord, from which the entire composition is developed. Info: http://www.essl.at/works/orgue.html

Orgue de Cologne

Orgue de Cologne (1986/2022) - tape music

Performed by Wolfgang Kogert on the organ of the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna, Austria. Released on the album ORGANO/LOGICS (col legno 2023) https://essl.at/records/organologics.html
"vingt secondes" is Karlheinz Essl's shortest composition. It lasts only 20 seconds - the guideline for washing one's hands during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was written during the lockdown in the Easter holidays of 2020. Originally written for melodica, this version was performed on the organ of the Hofburgkapelle Vienna by Wolfgang Kogert. Compositionally, the piece expresses a harmonic spread from a single note to three octaves at the end.
More information and free score download: http://www.essl.at/works/vingt-secondes.html

vingt secondes for organ

Info

vingt secondes (2020) for organ

Born 1960 in Vienna. Austrian composer, improviser and performer. He studied composition with Friedrich Cerha and musicology in Vienna. Besides writing experimental instrumental music, he performs on his own electronic instrument m@ze°2, develops software environments for computer-aided composition and creates generative sound and video environments. Since 2007 professor of composition for electro-acoustic and experimental music at the University of Music in Vienna.

Karlheinz Essl performs on a laptop computer that he has transformed into a live electronic musical instrument. The result is exciting and musical. You just won't hear these sounds anywhere else. He performs solo and in duets and trios, responding with sensitivity to fellow musicians, producing fascinating sound transformations, creating spontaneous surprises, and moving quickly from loops to cacophony to tiny clips of vocal sounds to all kinds of textures and ideas. He does all this with his m@ze°2(Modular Algorithmic Zound Environment) performance software. (Joel Chadabe, CDeMusic, Januar 2002)
