Music for toy instruments and electronics by Karlheinz Essl, performed by Isabel Ettenauer. 10th Anniversary Extended Release (col legno 2023)
https://www.essl.at/records/whatever.html

Whatever Shall Be

Sequitur XIV was written for the Hamburg-based pianist and performer Jennifer Hymer and sets the thumb piano in focus. This instrument, named ‘Mbira’ in Africa, was discovered in the middle of the 20th Century from the British ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey, who developed out of it a standardized western instrument named ‘kalimba’, and let it be produced industrially. In contrast to the African original, this western new construction is tuned diatonically.

First I tried to approach the instrument like a child in that I pushed away all knowledge about the high art of Mbira-practice to the side. What did I see before me? A trapezoidal shaped wooden box with metal blades of differing lengths that were fastened over a sound hole in the middle. After I examined the sound possibilities of the kalimba’s body through rubbing, scratching and knocking, I attached a contact microphone to its surface and sent the sounds through the same computer program that I had developed for the other “Sequitur” compositions. Suddenly everything became enchanted: the canonic layering of my knocking and scraping noises compressed themselves into a polyrhythmic layering and I felt myself being transported to the south of Africa where the African musicians play this instrument in ensemble and thereby produce a highly complex polyphony which the Viennese musicologist Gerhard Kubik described as “inherent patterns.”

Only later I dedicated myself to the metal tines and through the help of live electronic manipulation found means and ways to dig out an ongoing diatonic. After many months of free experimenting, I was finally able to write a concisely written score for Jennifer Hymer, which turned my summing-ups of this instrument into a sound journey.

https://www.essl.at/works/sequitur/sequitur-14.html

Sequitur XIV

Info

Sequitur XIV (2009) for kalimba and live-electronics

On September 15, 1945, Anton Webern was shot by an American occupation soldier in alleged self-defense in Mittersill, where he had taken refuge from the approaching Red Army. Thus ended the life of one of the most influential composers of the modern era in an inconceivable and tragic way.

60 years later - on September 15, 2005 - two commemorative events for Anton Webern will take place within the framework of the 10th Composers' Forum Mittersill: for an event in public space, Karlheinz Essl has created the algorithmic sound installation WebernUhrWerk for computer-controlled Carillon. For the subsequent commemorative concert in St. Anna's Church, he wrote WebernSpielWerk for Toy Piano, which is a kind of projection of the Carillon music onto a toy piano. The pervasive character of the carillon, which filled the whole place in the afternoon, is reduced to the "poor" sound world of a toy piano, whose sound produced by struck metal rods resembles that of a bell - but is much more restrained and intimate.

This composition was written in the last days of August 2005 and is dedicated to Isabel Ettenauer, who premiered this work on September 15, 2005. It consists of four movements:

I. espressivo – mit einem gewissen sprechenden Ausdruck
II. molto rubato
III. Gemessenen Schritts (wie Totenglocken)
IV. sehr frei – molto intenso

https://www.essl.at/works/webernspielwerk.html

WebernSpielWerk

WebernSpielWerk (2005) for toy piano and ringmodulator

Concert version of Pandora’s Secret, a sound performance that Karlheinz wrote for Isabel Ettenauer's "Circus Lebasi", a music circus for the festival Linz09, when Linz was the European capital of culture. Scored for punch-tape-controlled music box and live electronics.
https://www.essl.at/works/pandoras-secret.html

Pandora's Revelation

Pandora's Revelation (2009) for music box and live-electronics

Since 2005 I have written a number of solo compositions for the toy piano, some of them together with (live) electronics. In my piece "under wood" I am confronting the toy piano with conventional instruments for the first time. It is used as an exceptional solo instrument but also as some sort of exotic percussion. For this purpose I deconstructed one of the two instruments and prepared it in order to produce a variety of interesting percussive sounds. Finally, both instruments are amplified - not only to make them louder, but also to enable the player for creating delicate noises inside the instrument.

The title "under wood" refers to a mechanical typewriter of the same name with its characteristic hammering sound. Besides, it can also be interpreted as the attempt to look behind the surfaces and to investigate the fascinating complexity that one discovers in the woods by changing the viewing perspective from the trees down to the earth: an almost impenetrable cosmos of independent, yet secretly connected gestures and movements of little creatures which one cannot see but only hear.

https://www.essl.at/works/underwood.html

under wood

under wood (2012) for toy piano and ensemble

Audio recording of the installation "Why Frets? - Tombstone", recorded on September 15, 2023 at the Warsaw Autumn Festival.

Why Frets? - Tombstone (Warsaw Autumn 2023) by Marko Ciciliani

i experimented with OpenAI's Text-To-Speech-Playground. i entered nonsensical phrases that contained a lot of repeating charachters and vowels. this are some results. it sounds really crazy and sometimes completely unexpected. the track names reflect the prompt.

Aeiou1

Sound performance with a MakeNoise MATH function generator controlling the VCO and VCF of a Doepfer DARK ENERGY synthesizer. Performed live at Studio kHz on July 25th, 2024. Have a look at at the video: https://youtu.be/M-QavH4j5xk

Doing MATH

Doing MATH Nr. 4

Doing MATH Nr. 4 (2024) for function generator and modular synth

Improvised piece using the Make Noise 0-coast , Triple Expresso expression pedal interface, micro cassette recorder, reverb and delay pedals, Alimba resonator, and Sniff-EM electromagnetic pickup. Recorded live in one take.

Encounter with The Krell

Binaural production - listen with headphones!

Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in Krems, Horn and Gars/Kamp between August 31st and September 1st, 2024. Dedicated to my friend Gerhard Eckel:

    1) At the Taffa creek near Horn
    2) Gerhard Eckel and Jack Hauser performing under a resonant bridge
    3) A train ride along the river Kamp
    4) Sound from MONOCOLOR's audio-visual installation SCREEN—SPACE at the NÖ Landesgalerie Krems        

Released: Sep 2nd, 2024
https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html

H.E.A.D.

G.U.R.X.

G.U.R.X. (Gerhard's Unique Resonating Xylophone) - BINAURAL

Binaural production - listen with headphones!
In tempore belli...

Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in Mantua, Italy between September 10-14, 2024:
    1) A walk through the historical center of Mantua
    2) A gelataria with the best ice cream in town
    3) Inside the Basilica di Sant'Andrea
    4) A rehearsal of the ensemble "nova ars cantandi" in the Basilica Palatina di Santa Barbara, singing "Dona Nobis Pacem" from an unknown mass by Antonio Nola (1642-1715).
Released: Sep 23rd, 2024
Info: https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html

M.A.N.T.

M.A.N.T. (Most Answers Never Translate) - BINAURAL

Generative sound environment for an art installation by Beat Zoder, written in MaxMSP. 6-channel live performance with Max9 at Studio kHz on 12 Dec 2024. Binaural rendering with REAPER and dearVR. Listen with headphones! https://essl.at/works/hirsch-roehren.html

In 2006, Swiss artist Beat Zoderer and Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl were commissioned to create a collaborative work for the music festival Stanser Musiktage. In an abandoned repository situated in the heart of the Swiss alps, both artists were setting up a room installation made of sewer pipes. Those plastic parts of different lengths were equipped with funnel speakers driven by a customized computer program written in MaxMSP by Karlheinz Essl. Utilizing realtime composition algorithms which the composers develops since 1985, his software created an ever-changing sonic environment which never repeated itself.

Seen from outside, the structure resembled a giant jackstraw heap which invited the public to explore the space. Sounds that were projected from the loudspeakers through the pipes commuted through the air, creating a mysterious atmosphere as if some hidden creatures were talking to each other in an incomprehensible, yet compelling language.

Von Hirschen und Röhren

Von Hirschen und Röhren (2024) - BINAURAL

First encounter between the organist Jeremy Joseph and the composer Karlheinz Essl on his 0-COAST modular synth on 2 December 2024. We met in St. Ursula, a beautiful baroque church in Vienna which houses three fine organs, one of which - a sublime 7-rank Italian instrument from the 18th century - is used on this track. There were no preconceived musical ideas or any kind of preparatory sketches for the improvisation. It is simply an atmospheric late-night ‘jam session’ recorded in the darkness of the sanctuary. It captures us getting to know each other, finding one another and it illustrates the process of musical consolidation through improvisation.
https://essl.at/div/becoming-one.html

Becoming One (2024) - free improvisation for organ and synthesizer

Binaural production - listen with headphones!
Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in Brno, Czech Republic on Feb 6th, 2025:
1) A walk through Brno's main station
2) Garbage collection in the morning
3) Soundcheck on the stage of Divadlo na Orli with Karlheinz playing the toy piano
4) Listening to cars and trams from above
Info: https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html


B.R.N.O. (Booming Rebels Need Objection) - BINAURAL

Karlheinz Essl's first piece for toy piano, composed 2005 for Isabel Ettenauer, became a signature piece for this instrument.

The primary aim of this piece is an attempt to break up the restricted sound world of the toy piano - not by superficial means of additional sound processing, but by the sound of the instrument itself. This is achieved by a sound file which is played back by a small loudspeaker which is hidden inside the toy piano; this creates a perfect blend between the sounds of the instrument and the sounds from the loudspeaker. 

Info and score: http://www.essl.at/works/kalimba.html

Whatever Shall be

Kalimba

Kalimba (2005) - for toy piano and playback

Recorded by Isabel Ettenauer for the CD "whatever shall be - music for toy instruments and electronics" (edition eirelav, 2013)

Having written several pieces for the toy piano before, I dedicated Sequitur V to this interesting instrument which — in fact — has not much in common with the piano as we know it. Its sound resembles chimes or maybe parts of a gamelan orchestra and therefore is not connected to the great history of classical piano music from Bach to Stockhausen; a fact that makes this instrument more accessible for me. Although the toy piano is tiny in every respect, the sound that it produces in Sequitur V becomes incredibly rich thanks to amplification and realtime sound processing.

Info: http://www.essl.at/works/sequitur/sequitur-5.html

Sequitur V

Sequitur V (2005) - for toy piano and live-electronics

by Marko Ciciliani
(excerpt)
no-input mixer solo

81 Matters in elemental Oder

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)


under wood (2012) for toy piano and ensemble

Karlheinz Essl

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