Michael Edgerton is at the forefront of vocal exploration by extending the technical and expressive capabilities of voice through the use of voice science and psychoacoustics. This approach has earned Mike considerable renown for those interested in the present and future of modern (experimental) voice.

As a composer, Michael’s music coalesces diverse influences such as European avant-garde, American experimentalism, and world music into contexts that are informed by scientific models and metaphors. His artistic mission is to liberate those sounds that otherwise remain in danger of being overlooked or going unheard.

Michael has received prizes for his compositions, including in 2007, the prestigious Kompositionspreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart. Michael has also received numerous other awards and grants. His music has been performed around the world by leading ensembles and artists.

Michael has published two books and scholarly articles on contemporary music and sound production, including The 21st Century Voice (2nd ed., Rowman & Littlefield).

Michael is currently Associate Professor of Music Composition at the Guangxi Arts University.

Michael Edward Edgerton - compositions 1985-2000

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): #55 (2000)
INSTRUMENTATION: solo violin
PAGES: 5
DURATION (APPROX): 11’04
PUBLICATION: BABELSCORES®
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: Chatschatur Kanajan at Galerie SPHN 2001; Recording: Chatschatur Kanajan, violin; 3 January 2001; Hochschule der Kunste, Berlin; Anja Beusterien, tonmeister

NOTE
Mamre presents an inner world of sound exploration, whose strands are woven through ancient cultures and traditions. Mamre is a birthplace, itself, literal and ideal. Compressions and rarefactions tell two stories of Abram and Mamre, of survival and an heir.
 
Genesis 17
"When Abram was ninety-nine years old Y*hw*h appeared to him and said, 'I am El-Shaddai. Live in my presence, be perfect, and I shall grant a covenant between myself and you, and make you numerous.' God spoke to him as follows, '... you will become the father of many nations. I shall make you exceedingly fertile. I shall make you into nations, and your issue will be kings."

Genesis 18
"Y*hw*h appeared to him at the oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day. He looked up and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them, ... Let me have a little water brought, and you can wash your feet and have a rest under the tree. Let me fetch a little bread and you can refresh yourselves before going further ... Then taking curds, milk and the calf which had been prepared, he laid all before them, and they ate while he remained standing near them under the tree ..."

Abram accompanied the three as they proceeded on their journey. The two angels went on toward Sodom; while Y*hw*h remained behind and talked with Abram, telling him of the destruction that was about to fall on that city. Abram pleaded that if ten righteous persons could be found, then would it not be better to spare this city. But not even ten could be found and the threatened destruction fell upon it .... At length all his wanderings came to an end. At the age of 175 years, 100 years after he had first entered the land of Canaan, Abram died, and was buried at Machpelah. The history of Abraham made a wide and deep impression on the ancient world, and references to it are interwoven in the religious traditions of almost all Eastern nations.

In MAMRE, a short study for solo violin, a select group of variables were chosen that would offer a closer look into the micro-sound world of the violin. More specifically, the intention was to develop a multi-parameterized network that would allow compositional coherence to be developed across multiple dimensions. Aurally, the result of such a framework resulted in the production of irregular and transient sonorities by shifting inherent variables of sound production into non-idiomatic ratios, when compared with pitch, rhythm and tempo. In addition to rhythm and pitch, the following variables were selected: bow rotation, bow speed, microintervallic movement, microintervallic tuning (Beats), bow placement, bow pressure, decoupling bow speed from tempo, two dimensional vibrati. The results of these manipulations include transient source and spectral segments; complex harmonic and inharmonic multiphonic sonorities; subharmonics, and; inharmonic glissandi.

Next, a few spectrographic analyses (with accompanying recordings) assisted in this discussion.

#55. Mamre_excerpt. Performed by Chatschatur Kanajan

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): #54 (1999)
INSTRUMENTATION: for two voices
PAGES: 7
DURATION (APPROX): 1’37
PUBLICATION: BABELSCORES®
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: Kristy Cheadle & Steve Tasko, The University of Wisconsin, 2007
Note
Friedrich’s Comma presents a heightened vocal expression by offering an increased graininess of timbral complexity during sound production.  This increased graininess becomes possible when complexity of articulation is heightened through a novel comprehensive map of place and manner within the vocal tract, that expands the phonetic-based model to well over 100 locations and postures with their associated manners.
For this small study, an anatomic grid was developed so that multiple levels of information could be transmitted simultaneously.  The significance of this model is that it allows for the possibility of developing a contrapuntal complex of independently strata within one face.
Friedrich’s Comma was featured in the article “Palatal Sound;  A Comprehensive Model of Vocal Tract Articulation”, published in ORGANIZED SOUND, volume 4, number 2, fall 1999, © Cambridge University Press.

Friedrich’s Comma was recorded by Angela Rademacher and Hanno Koloska at the Universität der Kunste, Berlin on 26 September 2002; Wolfgang Viehweg, tonmeister. The recording is included on the cd accompanying my book The 21st Century Voice.

Unknown Album (5/24/2008 5:08:38 PM)

#54. Friedrich's Comma

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): #41 (1997)
INSTRUMENTATION: for two voices
DURATION (APPROX): 3’33
PUBLICATION: C.P. PRESS PUBLICATIONS
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: Michael Meadows and Mike Edgerton in Madison, Wisconsin on November 24, 1997
NOTE:
Lingua-Palatal 1 (1997) utilizes a novel model of articulation that uses tongue tip to upper palate constrictions far in excess of traditional phonatory linguistics. It is a teaching piece developed from a new model of articulation that extends the 9-point phonetic model to over fifty points.

#41. Lingua - Palatal 1_1m35-End

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 58 (2001)
INSTRUMENTATION: for choir and optional children’s chorus
PAGES: 29
DURATION (APPROX): 14’00
PUBLICATION: BABELSCORES®
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: Partial premiere was given in October 2000 in Rame Küla, Estonia. A second partial premiere was given by the Choir of the HdK (Berlin), Miriam Sohor, conductor at the SchlossPark in Potsdam, Germany in 2001.

NOTE: Kalevi Matus was Semifinalist in the Composition Contest of the Netherlands Radio Choir, 2007

NOTE 2: Dedicated to Marika Blossfeldt, Artistic Director of Polli Talu Arts Center, an International Residential Center in Rame Küla (Estonia), where Kalevi Matus was conceived and composed in September to October 2000.

NOTE 3: Pencil drawing on cover by Kristjan Raud (1865-1943), “Linda kive kandmas” (ca. 1935)

NOTE 4: Kalevi Matus is a series of six short choral movements with optional interludes. The text underlying Kalevi Matus is an episode of the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg (meaning son of Kalev). In this story, Linda, Kalev’s widow is mourning her huband’s death and is carrying large stones to build a monument on his grave. Influenced by the folk songs of the Settu people from southern Estonia. The work uses some contemporary vocal techniques within an emotional and folk-influenced composition.

NOTE 5: Kalevi Matus is a series of six short choral movements with optional interludes.  The text “Kalevi Matus” is an episode of the Estonian national epic Kalevipoeg (Meaning son of Kalev).  In this story, Linda, Kalev’s widow is mourning her husband’s death and is carrying large stones to build a monument on his grave.  At the time, Linda is pregnant with Kalevipoeg, the heroic figure of the epic.  Weak from her condition, she drops a large stone.  Unable to pick it up, she sits down on the stone and begins to cry.  Her tears form a little puddle, which turn into a pond, and then into a lake.  Today, you can still see Linda’s large stone in the middle of her tear lake (Ülemiste lake) in Tallinn.

#58. Kalevi Matus_Mmt5-P14-End

#58. Kalevi Matus_Mmt3_3m15-3m32

#58. Kalevi Matus_Mmt1_p1-2

Michael Edgerton is an active composer with performances around the world. His compositions have received international prizes and recognition including the important German award, the Kompositionspreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart for his composition the Tempo Mental Rap, a series of six variations for guitar based upon a Steve Vai transcription of a Frank Zappa rap. Michael’s compositions utilize a broad range of musical influences such as European avant-garde, American experimentalism, progressive rock and world music. Since the mid-90s Michael’s compositions have been informed by scientific models and metaphors. Initially stemming from his studies with voice science and dynamical systems, he’s built a body of work that explores the integration of nonlinear concepts applied to sound production and compositional constraints. While the methods and systems he develops are often influenced by science, it is his intuition – his ear that gives birth to the music.

Michael is currently working as Professor of Artistic Research at Lund University/the Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden.

#41. Lingua - Palatal 1_1m35-End

Michael Edward Edgerton, 1985-2000