Category: Folkwang
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great symphony in c
Javad Javadzade asked for a piece for two double basses and electronics. He wanted to be able to perform it alone also, so ended up having to trigger electronics way more than is usually acceptable. Be careful what you wish for, I suppose. It was a good test of current digital resources as the performance…
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making sense of: recording
On July 20th 2023, with the help of Jorge Vallejo, Karin Schistek and I recorded my solo piano piece making sense of at the Folkwang University’s Tonaufnahmestudio. There are no electronics in this piece but Jorge did make a single-camera video recording—with some music manuscript paper flourishes after the recording was done—which Karin then used…
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A definition of art and one view of pop music
I wrote the following definition and commentary because my view of art sometimes raises objections—as should any strong view of something so intangible—most recently in my teaching at the Folkwang University, where pop music composition takes its place alongside electronic, instrumental, and composition and visualisation. My criticism of the music industry and commercial music is sometimes…
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Perceptual or Conceptual (in Electronic Music)?
On November 13th 2021 I gave an impulse lecture to stimulate a discussion we hosted as part of the symposium 50 years of electronic music and audiovisuals at the folkwang university of the arts. Entitled Perceptual or Conceptual (in Electronic Music)? I presented aspects of concept art as they impact both the visual arts and music, taking a…
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50 years of electronic music and audiovisuals at the folkwang university of the arts
From November 11th-13th 2021 we hosted a symposium to celebrate 50 years of electronic music and audiovisuals at the folkwang university of the arts. With international guests presenting their music and thoughts alongside ICEM teaching staff, we presented six concerts and 12 impulse lectures leading to group discussions. My welcome text from the symposium booklet is copied…
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ma bell premiere (and recording with Ambeo mic)
On January 10th 2022 Michael Pattmann premiered ma bell, a reworking of ma bel. For one beautiful bell and four percussion groups consisting of six objects each of wood, metal, drum, and plate plus computer (the latter producing 3rd-order ambisonics surround sound) this is essentially a piece for percussion and sampler, in the form of…
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seven rotations of seven for three premiere
The premiere of my seven rotations of seven for three (triple doubles) for three violas and electronics was premiered at the NOW! Festival on October 30th 2021. The piece had a bit of a difficult gestation period. I was planning on using my new live electronics system vivos for this piece but that would have…
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Kla4
Kla4 is a piece by Michael Edwards, Thomas Neuhaus, Dirk Reith, and Günter Steinke for four self-playing pianos, e.g. Yamaha Disklaviers, as in the video below. Kla4 was presented over several evenings as an installation during the NOW! Festival, Essen, from October 23rd to 27th 2019. All four composers contributed four short pieces that were…
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soundscapes around the world
Over the spring and summer of 2020 my students and I worked on a four-channel soundscapes installation that created a continuously remixed and varying aural collage of sound recorded from around the globe: Ecuador, Japan, Cuba, Antarctis, Europe, etc. The software was written by Clarissa Ray Porst in PD using some of my Markov Chain…
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Organ – Remote
Over the spring and summer of 2020, my students and I worked on new pieces for the MIDI-controllable Kuhn Organ of the Philharmonie Essen. Some of these were algorithmically generated, others more traditionally composed. Originally the idea was to present a live stream during the early stages of the corona pandemic but this was postponed…
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NOW! Festival Concert broadcast on WDR (in German)
On September 21st 2020 I was a guest of Johannes Zink and Frank Hilberg at WDR Cologne. Johannes and I discussed the concert I organised as part of the NOW! Festival on October 29th 2019. This was a spectacular and unique event in that it included five MIDI pianos (4 Yamaha Disklaviers and 1 Boesendorfer…
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WDR Broadcast on Electronic Composition @ ICEM (in German)
On September 21st 2020 I was a guest of Johannes Zink and Frank Hilberg at WDR Cologne. Johannes and I spoke about the Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, in particular the compositions of my students of Electronic Composition there (Tamon Yashima, Sebastian Wendt, and Tim…
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Q&A for Barbara Maurer’s New Music Masters Seminar (in German)
The following questions were put to me by Prof. Barbara Maurer in preparation for a portrait in her Masters in New Music seminar. BM: Was ist Musik für Dich? ME: Als Nomen, erstens: Klangkobjekte oder oft Konstrukte, die man bewusst anhört, um eine ästhetische Erfahrung hervorzubringen. Als Verb (musizieren): die meist menschlich-soziale Aktivität des Zusammensetzens…
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gold im bach
The title gold im bach arose from a discussion I had with Karin Schistek during a trip in summer 2019 to Camogli, near Genoa, Italy. I had made a mock-up of this new piece with my algorithmic composition software slippery chicken and we’d been listening to it in the background over a cheap bluetooth…
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orchestration algorithm in
“days with glass edges”days with glass edges (chasing the butterflies in my wallpaper), for fifteen-piece ensemble and 4-channel electronics, was premiered at the NOW! Festival by the Folkwang Modern ensemble conducted by Eva Fodor in the Essen Philharmonic on October 26th 2019. A documentation recording is given above and here is a short pre-performance discussion with my…
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Premiere of Durchhaltevermögen in Münster
In May 2018 I was in Münster with edimpro colleagues Dimitris Papageorgiou and Karin Schistek to give improvisation workshops to students at the Hochschule für Musik. Mieko Kanno was with us to perform a lovely new work by Dimitris for electric violin and computer called deti. That work showcased Mieko’s research project ‘Modelling a Virtual…
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oh, (the) shame!
This is the full and original text of my article published on February 15th 2018 in Times Higher Education. In January of 2017 a colleague and I travelled to Canada to work with a saxophone quartet and give a performance in the beautiful Church of the Gesù, Montreal. At passport control both of us stated…