Michael Edward Edgerton, compositions 2001 - current

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

#76. DRAFT 1/25/2002_9m52-10m50. Performance by Kadyrov, Brewer and Eike

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 77 (2008)
INSTRUMENTATION: flute (+ alto), alto sax (+ tenor), percussion, guitar, voice
PAGES: 38
DURATION (APPROX): 19’30
PUBLICATION: BABELSCORES®
PREMIERE BY: ensemble Ars Nova (Terje Thiwång, Jörgen Pettersson, Stefan Östersjö, Jonas Larsson) & Angela Rademacher-Wingerath @ AVFest08 in Middlesbrough, UK_March 3, 2008
NOTE: A Marriage of Shadows is a modern classical composition for voice, flute, saxophone, guitar and percussion focusing on unusual and new sounds within complex structures. This piece was commissioned by Dr. Jim TerKeurst, then director of The Institute for Digital Innovation at the University of Teesside, for a premiere on the AVFest08. Jim’s idea was that the piece responds to the general notion of innovation.
In A Marriage of Shadows, three concepts regarding the visual perception of shadows influenced me: a) ordinary shadows, b) spaces with an aura or veil giving off no light and allowing little to pass through, c) airless planet with no air molecules to refract light are apt metaphors for not only the kaleidoscopic variation related to repetition of theme, but also to the procedure involved in the systematic desynchronization of prominent elements. Particularly when comparing the relationship between an ord complex tone and an extra-normal tone.
Complexity to Networks
This piece is formally influenced by the study of networks – in this case, the roadmap of Middlesbrough, England and the surrounding area. Part of the process involved mapping the routes between one central location in Middlesbrough and five other places in the surrounding Tees Valley. These were then placed under a series of ellipses with nodal points generating data to determine pitch, rhythm and gesture. In addition, the following real-world conditions affecting traffic flow were considered: congestion, speed limits, purpose of travel, distance and density of flow. This piece reflects my interest and research into dynamical systems.
Other Factors
Some other elements that were integrated into this piece include: the Logistic Equation, expansion of Spectral Harmonies, pretonal rhythmic complexity and global issues surrounding bioacoustic, dynamical systems.

Ars Nova and Angela Rademacher, performers

#77. A Marriage of Shadows_excerpts. Performed by Ensemble Ars Nova and Angela Rademacher-Wingerath

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-mm1. Performed by Jan Heinke

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

#82. Cataphora-mm11-28. Performed by Jan Heinke

#82. Cataphora-mm51. Performed by Jan Heinke

#82. Cataphora-mm70-83. Performed by Jan Heinke

#82. Cataphora-mm102-110. Performed by Jan Heinke

#82. Cataphora_mm111-129. Performed by Jan Heinke

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 85.a (2010)
INSTRUMENTATION: soprano saxophone
PAGES: 6
DURATION (APPROX): 17’
PREMIERE BY: Phillipe Arnaudet at the Centre d’Art Contemporain, Maison des Arts Georges Pompidou, Cajarc, France on November 25, 2010

NOTE: Ari(rang) is an abstraction from my recomposition of Arirang, which is part of a larger work titled Folk Songs for chamber ensemble (fl, cl, sax, tpt, euph, perc, vln, vla, vlc) & 5 solo voices, which are an hommage to the Folk Songs by Luciano Berio. However, in my collection folk songs, the texts have to do with workers songs and the life surrounding them, and compared to the Berio, these songs use more contemporary musical languages, expressions and techniques.
The folk songs include:
Arirang (Korea)
Ey, ukhnem! (Russia)
Hey Zhankoye (Yiddish)
Hoea Ra (Maori)
le temps des cerises (France)
Van Dieman’s Land (Australia)
Vem kan segla förutan vind? (Sweden)

Ari(rang) draws its inspiration from a Korean folk song of the same name, a song that is often regarded as the unofficial Korean national anthem. The work utilizes a number of techniques that are drawn from Edgerton’s extensive research into voice, acoustics and perception with many of the techniques required of the performer being largely unexplored territory for many modern saxophonists.Throughout the work, the performer is required to create various sounds with their air and voice that resonate outside of the saxophone.

#85a. Arirang_Excerpts. Performed by Phillipe Arnaudet

CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 86 (2011-12)
INSTRUMENTATION: alto flute
PAGES: 24
DURATION (APPROX): 17’
PREMIERE BY: partial premiere by Mats Möller at the University of Malaya, Dec 3, 2013
NOTE: uses many contemporary performance techniques, based on research into flute acoustics and performance practice. The notation uses scalable notational features that apply to methods of sound production. Many of the resultant sounds are non-normal and conventionally “non-musical”.
Specifically the 2. sonata has to do with (1) transitions near a critical point in fluid flow where a disturbance triggers a regime of irregular and disordered behavior and how patches of turbulence are embedded within a surrounding laminar flow (2) my continuing interest in desynchronized and multidimensional sound production (3) how in 1961 senior Kennedy officials publicly condemned the harsh controls at the East-West borders in Berlin designed to stop the flow of thousands of refugees, but who privately had prior warning but said nothing as they secretly worried that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and East German President Walter Ulbricht might sign a peace treaty that could threaten Allied and West German access to West Berlin…

#86. 2 sonata_excerpts. Performed by Mats Möller

Party Pieces Project, a celebration of John Cage with 100 composers with ties to Germany and/or the U.S.A.

#87. Party Pieces Project

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. Performed by Loadbang (enhanced)

#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

TITLE: abaGa baʁatur (uncle hero)
CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 88 (2014)
INSTRUMENTATION: for four voices
PAGES: 18
DURATION (APPROX): 4’47
PREMIERE BY: AUDITIVVOKAL DRESDEN, {Angela Wingerath, Soprano; Katja Fischer, Soprano; Carl Thiemt, Multi-Vokalist; Timo Hannig, Bass; Olaf Katzer, conductor} on June 14th 2016, Palais im Großen Garten Dresden
NOTE: AbaGa baʁatur (uncle hero) refers to the second Mongol ruler in Persia, Abaqa Khan from 1265 to 1282. During this time the Mongol empire was consumed with civil war and invasion, which led to the development of powerful alliances, often through marriage. In 1265, Abaqa Khan’s father, Hulagu Khan, had negotiated with Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos to add a daughter of the Byzantine imperial family to the number of Hulagu’s wives. Michael selected his illegitimate daughter Maria Palaiologina, but before she arrived in Persia, Hulagu died, so she was married to the Prince Abaqa Khan instead. This composition is a short glimpse of war, love and alliance.
The Mongolian language features many guttural sounds, and being a living language, has evolved over time. This scene will compare the articulation of ancient, abaGa baʁatur and modern, abaga baatar(a) Mongolian, through the use and disuse of palatal, velar and uvular fricatives, trills and plosives. Then contrasting natural language use will be those experimental articulatory procedures identified throughout the score and based upon a novel articulatory mapping of the vocal tract

#88. AbaGa Baʁatur_2m05-4m45. Performed by AUDITIVVOKALDresden

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.

Michael Edward Edgerton, compositions 2001 - current

Michael Edward Edgerton, composition 2001-2018