Michael Edward Edgerton, compositions 2001 - current

The Return of Takhi, the last Feral Horse, performed by Loadbang on 2016 - 06 - 08 in Nanning, China during the 2016 China-ASEAN Music Week. This recording features minimal enhancement from the concert recording.

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 89 (2014)
INSTRUMENTATION: bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, voice
PAGES: 36
DURATION (APPROX): 9’31
NOTE: For Loadbang
PREMIERE: 2016_05_02, The National Opera Center (NYC) by Loadbang

The Return of Takhi, the last Feral Horse represents the sounds of the central Asian Steppe.

The ancient Mongolian poem, čaγan aγulan (White Mountains), a reflection on nature and mankind, is shared by the entire ensemble.

The sounds of the Central Asian Steppe – the sounds you might hear on the open plains from large mammals to small birds were analyzed through spectral analyses. In Takhi, I use both literal and metaphorical transcriptions of nonhuman vocalizations, referencing the hunting and foraging calls of large mammals such as:

Cervus elaphus scoticus – European red deer
Cervus canadensis – elk
Cervus elaphus nelsoni – Rocky Mountain elk
Rangifer tarandus – reindeer
Canis lupus – grey wolf
Canis lupus albus – Turukhan wolf, aka Tundra wolf (grey wolf subspecies, native to Eurasia’s tundra from Finland to the Kamchatka Peninsula)
Canis lupus campestris – Steppe wolf, a subspecies of the grey wolf, native to the Caspian steppes

#89. The Return of Takhi, the last Feral Horse_3 excerpts. Performed by Loadbang (enhanced)

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): #98 (2016)
INSTRUMENTATION: solo percussion and electronic playback with dynamic microphone placement (bass drum, snare drum, marimba, 3 suspended cymbals, gong, 4 small cymbals, stereo playback for electronics, monitor for percussionist, wireless handheld microphone for second performer to vary amplification at source continuously during performance)
PAGES: 17
DURATION (APPROX): 10’07
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: Ensemble Proxima Centauri. Great Hall of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, 19.30. Musicacoustica-Beijing Festival – 28 October 2016.

Note
Forty-two years ago, Stephen Hawking made predictions that radiation does escape from black holes. Known as “Hawking radiation” this phenomenon is too weak to observe with current techniques, and remained the “Holy Grail” for astrophysics. It has remained as such until recently when Prof. Steinhauer observed radiation emanating from an analogue black hole created in his lab at the Israel Institute of Technology.

Steinhauer’s findings, published in Nature Physics, describe the first observation of thermal, quantum radiation emanating from an analogue black hole. He found that pairs of phonons (particles of sound), appear spontaneously at the event horizon of the black hole. One of the phonons travels away from the void as Hawking radiation, while the other falls back in. The pair shares a spectral connection, referred to as ‘entanglement’, that allow for the detection of Hawking radiation.

It is those properties that my composition will partially model.

Hawking Radiation, for percussion and electronic playback

#98. Hawking Radiation-ElectronicsOnly_5m05-end

Imitating the Vivacity of the Human Voice, is a meditation on diversity and the roiling of coexistence. In this piece disparate components from east and west do not suggest a transcendent unification. Rather, rhetorical devices such as “Tiaogong” [跳弓] or “Schleifer” [] become something else – no longer artefacts presuming cultural retention, but rather discourse to a risky modernism
Technically, Imitating… presents incomplete (and embedded) tuplets on multiple strata that are to be interpreted flexibly in relation to a temporal grid laid out above the notation. 
Imitating … continues work with ornamentation as presented by Silvestro Ganassi, in his treatise dal Fontego Opera intitulata Fontegara (Venice, 1535). These ornaments are not to be treated in a historical manner, but rather the performer is asked to simulate non-diatonic contours and gestures, often in competition with an already abundant notation. Such prolongation offered through archetypal symbols provides a fleeting logos that is demonstrably risky.

#99. Imitating the Vivacity of the Human Voice_excerpt. Performed by Hu Liu

Beauty and Disappearance of an Unstable Torus (ob, cl, perc, pno, vla, db). The piece has to do with the destruction of a torus by a neighboring orbit. The piece is a bit risky, as it uses elements of tradition, which are then dissembled, then destroyed...

This recording is an audio mock-up of the piece – using midi and live sounds (for the contemporary techniques). The integration of live sounds focused on experimental methods with midi was a huge challenge. Although not perfect, it gives an idea of what the piece can be.

#96. Beauty and Disappearance of an Unstable Orbit. Audio mockup of live with midi sounds

Three excerpts from the premiere performance
PREMIERE: Premiered by AuditivVokal Dresden (Olaf Katzer, conductor) on 15.09.17 in Dortmund during Chor.com as part of the program „Vox populi?!“

NOTE: Dedicated to Olaf Katzer  and Auditivvokal Dresden for its premiere on 15.09.17 in Dortmund during CHOR.COM as part of the program „Vox populi?!“

Sirene segmenti is an homage to Demetrio Stratos and a recognition of the United Nations “International Day of Democracy”.

Since antiquity, sirens were amorously dangerous creatures, who, part-bird and part-woman, lured sailors with their enchanting calls and songs to shipwreck on their rocky coasts. 

More fitting for my piece than Homer or Joyce, is a passage from the short story by Franz Kafka, The Silence of the Sirens (Das Schweigen der Sirenen, 1917), “Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence. And though admittedly such a thing never happened, it is still conceivable that someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence certainly never.”

#101. Sirene Segmenti (3 excerpts)

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.

#101. Sirene Segmenti (3 excerpts)

Michael Edward Edgerton, composition 2001-2018