Michael Edward Edgerton, compositions 2001 - current

World premiere live recording by rarescale [Carla Rees, flute], [Sarah Watts, clarinet], [Paul Goodey, oboe], at DIVAcontemporary's Sonic Coast [4], The Bay Theatre, Weymouth College on the 22nd. November 2014. Part of the Sound and Music composer Curator Scheme. More: http://marc-yeats.co.uk/2014/05/the-moon-upright-wind-trio-2014/

The Moon Upright [wind Trio] 2014

for two voices and electronic playback. This recording performed by Angela Rademacher-Wingerath & Magdalena Schrad on 14 june 2005

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): #61 (2001)
INSTRUMENTATION: two voices and electronic playback
PAGES: 5
DURATION (APPROX): 7’58
PUBLICATION:
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: Rebekka Uhlig & Juergen Neubauer during “Ursprung” (experimental music theater) in the Kleiner Wasserspeicher, Berlin Prenzlauerberg during the Festival ‘Reservoir V’, 2001
Note The composition of mine titled Divergence, refers to a graphic of weather divergence in which miniscule irregularities in the initial conditions become responsible for potentially large changes. In this composition, the divergence is applied in two ways: 1) to sound production of the two live voices focused on nonlinear procedures, and; 2) through a realization of an actual weather simulation that was applied to electronic sounds. The work was realized at the TU-Berlin.

Note2
Review after a performance on 2015_11_21 by Argenta Walther & Stephanie Aston. The event titled “People Inside Electronics” presented the contemporary vocal chamber ensemble Accordant Commons in a concert at the Neighborhood Church in Pasadena, California, “Divergence by Michael Edwards Edgerton followed and this was performed by Stephanie Aston and Argenta Walther. High, bird-like sounds mingled with a low rumbling from the electronics and this soon took on a more frighteningly aggressive character reminiscent of the distant howling of wolves. This increased in savagery as well as loudness, with scratching and baying that gradually morphed into a series of pure pitches that increased in frequency – like a spaceship taking off. These were the result of a weather simulation applied to electronic sounds, a process that allows, according to the program notes, “miniscule irregularities in the initial conditions [to] become responsible for potentially large changes over time.” Low, raspy moaning was added and this made a nice organic contrast with the sterile sine waves. Towards the end, the relatively benign tones in the electronics became a series of explosions, as if some battle was occurring. Divergence is an evocative metamorphosis in sound between earthly, natural elements and remote cerebral coolness.” (Review on Sequenza21)

#61. Divergence_3m50-End

#61. Divergence_1m50-3m50

#61. Divergence_0-1m50

for voice and electronic playback. This recording was performed by Angela Rademacher-Wingerath on 14 June 2005

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): #60 (2001)
INSTRUMENTATION: solo voice and electronic playback
PAGES: 11
DURATION (APPROX): 11’33
PUBLICATION:
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: Rebekka Uhlig & Juergen Neubauer during “Ursprung” (experimental music theater) in the Kleiner Wasserspeicher, Berlin Prenzlauerberg during the Festival ‘Reservoir V’, 2001

NOTE: Cantor’s Dust explores sustained ‘noise’ sonorities through a novel model of vocal tract articulation based on a mapping of place of articulation above the glottis. This piece asks the singer to produce inharmonic sounds at these points as stops, fricatives and approximants while singing ‘melodies’ notated as contours within a pitch:time axis. Then further, in order to integrate performative tension, the singer is asked to add consonants and vowels on a separate strata. Meanwhile, on yet another strata, the singer is asked to change the shape of the lips according to a notation identifying bilabial rounding, protrusion, lateral movement, etc.

#60. Cantor's Dust_6m - 6m35

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 64 (2002)
INSTRUMENTATION: string quartet
PAGES: 141
DURATION (APPROX): 45’
PUBLICATION: BABELSCORES®
PREMIERE BY: first movement by Kairos Quartet (Germany) on 4 April 2004, 18. Tage für Neue Musik Rottenburg (am Neckar) A Quattro! – Festival für Streichquartett Kulturverein Zehntscheuer E.V. Rottenburg am Neckar.
NOTE: The influence of nonlinear phenomena and the scaling of multidimensional phase space served as generating principles for musical composition in this First String Quartet.

REVIEWS
SÜDWESTPRESSE ROTTENBURGER POST, 6 APRIL 2004
„Korpereinsatz mit Sogwirkung“ (body movement with staying power)
“… Edgerton looked after performance practice and tradition of the string quartet, with only a few pauses were intricate figurations with new means of articulation reorganized – such as finely differentiated rules for bow angle and the intensity of the finger pressure. After the first movement I was curious to see how Edgerton applies the findings of his research when referencing Giacinto Scelsi (third movement) and Helmut Lachenmann (fifth Movement). ”

Michael Eidenbenz, RADIOMAGAZIN 25/2004 (SWIZERLAND, JUNE 2004)
“… Edgerton, in his 1 Stringquartet writes a complex music that one can either simply intuitively understand, or can parse out a deeper understanding from the composers’ instructions. … is a recent heir to a venerable tradition, in which the last word has not yet been spoken.”
(Michael Eidenbenz, translated by M. Edgerton)

Walter M. Grimmel, NEUE ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR MUSIK 3 – MAI/JUNI 2004
“… Edgerton’s Quartet #1 … virtuosic special effects and calculated dramaturgy.”
Werner M. Grimmel (translated by M. Edgerton)

Christoph Sramek, 4. SENDE(R)MUSIK; NEUE MUSIK IM MDR-STUDIO; LEIPZIG–MDR-STUDIO AM AUGUSTUSPLATZ; 11 MAY 2004
Michael Edgerton: Streichquartett Nr. 1,1. Satz (2002)
” … The many-layered nuanced colors of the string sound may possibly be associated with the diffusion of light through a prism, to awaken the impression of the existence of a larger string ensemble.”
Christoph Sramek (translated by M. Edgerton)

composed by Michael Edward Edgerton

#64. String Quartet #1-1st mmt_11m30 to end. Performed by the Kairos String Quartet

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 76 (2007)
INSTRUMENTATION: for solo voice and two speaking female voices
PAGES: 4
DURATION (APPROX): 12
PUBLICATION:
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: Merdan Kadyrov solo; Poppy Brewer and Aden Eike, spoken voices_ The Voices of Voice_St. Paul’s Cathedral in Dundee, Scotland_July 07

NOTE
DRAFT 1/25/2002 is experimental music theater that is focused on the abuse of political power. Specifically this piece focuses on the justification for the inhumane treatment of prisoners in the Iraq war, authored by A.G. Alberto Gonzalez and given to POTUS George Bush II in the so-called “Torture Memo” of January 25, 2002.
The text of Gonzalez is intoned by two women speaking portions of the text as slightly-odd news broadcasters of the mainstream media type, while the central focus of the piece is on a vocal soloist, who through the extensive use of extended (extra-normal) vocal techniques, portrays the sounds and emotions of captivity and torture.

Edgerton Portrait

#76. DRAFT 1/25/2002_4m24-5m44. Performed by Kadyrov, Brewer and Eike

TITLE: Cataphora – lulus brevicum, for solo voice (2009)
CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 82 (2009)
INSTRUMENTATION: solo voice
PAGES: 19
DURATION (APPROX): 17’10
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: Jan Heinke, 7. Internationale Obertontage „Lauschrausch“, 11-13. September 2009 [Freitag 11. 09. 2009, 19.30 Uhr at The Blechner (Dresden, Germany)]

Note
“It was exciting when Jan Heinke premiered a piece of the composer Michael Edward Edgerton. Composed specially for these Overtone Days – great thanks to the Saxon Cultural Foundation – the audience was treated to an impressive, contemporary vocal solo piece, which existed beyond known singing habits. The audience reflected to this with a thunderous applause.”

Jens Mügge, Overtone Music Network

#82. Cataphora-mm2-3. Performed by Jan Heinke

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

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 66 (2002)
INSTRUMENTATION: 7 strings (vl, vla)
PAGES: 47
DURATION (APPROX): 9’
PUBLICATION: BABELSCORES®
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: Still unpremiered in concert, Stefanie Heilmann recorded all parts at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin.
NOTE: originally titled Overture as this piece was intended as the opening music to an experimental music theater environment titled CREATION OF THE WORLD (now dormant…). This was influenced by ancient north Indian treatises (SANGITASIROMANI, and the RG VEDA), while exploring the decoupling of sound production by strings.

SANGĪTAŚIROMANI, refers to a medieval handbook of Indian Music, the “Crest-Jewel of Music”, written in 1428 A.D.

Ancient north Indian treatises, such as the SANGITASIROMANI, and the RG VEDA have influenced the musical language and form of the overture. These ancient texts were concerned with developing relationships between human existence and those elements of the world that affected the life within our bodies, spirits and intentions. Therefore, ancient structures of affect that ruled the planets and our expressions are of interest in this project. The result of the systems that were developed had a robustness whether the stimuli encompassed words, music, movement or theater, within cultured or pedestrian environments. Some of these expressions will interface with ancient techniques within a multidimensional complexity of observed performance. In this way the reference to the creation of the world is seen to take place on the local level, suggesting a personal responsibility of the world within and around us. The music is exploring the multidimensional parameter space outside of fundamental frequency obsession. The drama is not based upon a linear narrative in any of the sections, but will attempt to dramatize the elements of performance on more or less equal perceptual levels. As well, interactivity may factor into the performance and construction of the event.

#66. SANGĪTAŚIROMANI_3m20 excerpt

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)

THRUSH begins with my reinterpretation of the same audio that Messiaen used for his transcriptions of the North American Songbirds, blackbird and wood thrush. These audio samples were digitized and analysed using PRAAT and C-Speech, from which I made new transcriptions that were more accurate representations of the physical acoustical signal. Of course, a temporal framework had to be established for these transcriptions, for which I decided to treat in a non-metrical fashion, since birds presumably do not think in terms of man-made meters and units. Then paired with the acoustical signal, I did research on the physical mechanism by which the birds produced sounds. These involved analyses of airflow, source, resonance and articulation for both blackbird and wood thrush. It was found that some bird species produce multiphonic & biphonic signals using paired bronchi, while others used a single bronchus. When using paired bronchi to produce two independent frequency contours, the dynamical interpretation would result in two simultaneous limit cycles; meanwhile, two independent frequency contours produced by a single bronchus would result in the occurrence of nonlinear phenomena, here interpreted as a torus.

#91. THRUSH performed by Moritz Ernst on 2020 - 11 - 06

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.

#82. Cataphora-mm2-3. Performed by Jan Heinke

Michael Edward Edgerton, composition 2001-2018

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