New Music By Karlheinz Essl

Der Komponist Karlheinz Essl über seine Erfahrungen mit analogen Modularsynthesizern und No-Input-Mixern nach Jahrzehnten digitalen Musikmachens mit Computern und selbstgeschriebener Software. Veröffentlicht Januar 2024 auf der Plattform SoundingFuture. https://www.soundingfuture.com/de/artikel/von-digital-nach-analog

Free improvisation on a MakeNoise 0-COAST modular synthesizer connected to a Doepfer ring modulator with two MATH function generators and a MakeNoise WobbleBug using frequency, amplitude and ring modulation. Performed live at Studio kHz on Jan 16, 2023.

Free improvised live performance on a MakeNoise 0-COAST modular synth, two function generators (MATH) and a ring modulator (Doepfer A114). Recorded at Studio kHz on 4 January, 2024. No MIDI, no sequencer, no overdubs, no edits. Part of the work-in-progress "Coastlines" (2020 ff.): https://essl.at/works/coastlines.html

Generative sound environment based on the paradigm of biorhythm: three independent temporal processes in the ratio of 23 : 28 : 33 change the level of three sound files with a recording of the famous Christmas carol "Silent Night" (Stille Nacht), which are time-stretched according to the same proportions. https://essl.at/works/nachtstille.html Written in Max with Karlheinz Essl's "Realtime Composition Library".

Radiofeature von Jörg Duit über das Improvisationsduo OUT OF THE BLUE mit Agnes Heginger (Stimme) und Karlheinz Essl (Live-Elektronik). Erstsendung am 20.3.2018 im Zeit-Ton auf Ö1. https://www.essl.at/bibliogr/duit-sommerwellen.html Die charismatische Sängerin Agnes Heginger und der kongeniale Komponist und Elektroniker Karlheinz Essl nehmen Gedichte als Ausgangspunkt für ihre Performances, die von beiden aus dem Moment heraus vertont werden. Das Offene und Unerwartete steht im Zentrum dieses Prozesses. Dabei reagieren sie auf den entstehenden Raum/Klang, die Zuhörerschaft, die gesprochenen und gesungenen Worte, die Soundscapes und Geräusche, die hörbaren oder nur gedachten Gedanken. Hinter diesem sich fortwährend transformierenden Gespinnst wird etwas Neues sichtbar. Erleben Sie ein fesselndes Experiment, in dem liebevoll ausgewählte Text- und Klangfragmente zu Spielbällen werden, mit denen Agnes Heginger und Karlheinz Essl virtuos jonglieren.

A granular de/reconstruction of two late madrigals by Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613), who murdered his wife and her lover "in flagranti". Soundtrack for a live performance with the actor Markus Hering, premiered at the Basilika Sonntagberg on October 28, 2023. Commissioned by the festival Klangraum Waidhofen. https://essl.at/works/gesualdo-fragmente.html

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in Graz, Austria on October 7, 2023 during the Steirischer Herbst festival: 1) Carillon of the Glockenspielplatz 2) Visitors of the Landhaus 3) Main square in the evening with many trams 4) A tram ride with Line 6 Info: https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html

Sequitur XIV was written for the Hamburg-based pianist and performer Jennifer Hymer and sets the thumb piano in focus. This instrument, named ‘Mbira’ in Africa, was discovered in the middle of the 20th Century from the British ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey, who developed out of it a standardized western instrument named ‘kalimba’, and let it be produced industrially. In contrast to the African original, this western new construction is tuned diatonically. First I tried to approach the instrument like a child in that I pushed away all knowledge about the high art of Mbira-practice to the side. What did I see before me? A trapezoidal shaped wooden box with metal blades of differing lengths that were fastened over a sound hole in the middle. After I examined the sound possibilities of the kalimba’s body through rubbing, scratching and knocking, I attached a contact microphone to its surface and sent the sounds through the same computer program that I had developed for the other “Sequitur” compositions. Suddenly

On September 15, 1945, Anton Webern was shot by an American occupation soldier in alleged self-defense in Mittersill, where he had taken refuge from the approaching Red Army. Thus ended the life of one of the most influential composers of the modern era in an inconceivable and tragic way. 60 years later - on September 15, 2005 - two commemorative events for Anton Webern will take place within the framework of the 10th Composers' Forum Mittersill: for an event in public space, Karlheinz Essl has created the algorithmic sound installation WebernUhrWerk for computer-controlled Carillon. For the subsequent commemorative concert in St. Anna's Church, he wrote WebernSpielWerk for Toy Piano, which is a kind of projection of the Carillon music onto a toy piano. The pervasive character of the carillon, which filled the whole place in the afternoon, is reduced to the "poor" sound world of a toy piano, whose sound produced by struck metal rods resembles that of a bell - but is much more restrained and intimate. This c

Concert version of Pandora’s Secret, a sound performance that Karlheinz wrote for Isabel Ettenauer's "Circus Lebasi", a music circus for the festival Linz09, when Linz was the European capital of culture. Scored for punch-tape-controlled music box and live electronics. https://www.essl.at/works/pandoras-secret.html

Palindromic-canonic variations of the most famous Christmas carol "Silent Night"; the score was punched into a tape that could be played in different directions on a mechanical musical clock. It has been adapted for toy piano and organ. It contains four parts, the titles of which are anagrams of the name "Silent Night": Tingle Hints - inversion Shingle Tint - retrograde Lent in Sight - inversion of retrograde Silent Night - prime form https://www.essl.at/works/listen-thing.html

In this piece, Essl uses the inside of the toy piano for the first time. A contact microphone is attached to the instrument and connected to a custom-made computer program which acts as a kind of sonic ‘particle accelerator’. During their voyage through the piece, the performer not only scratches and knocks on the sound board, but also has to stamp their feet (the source of the rhythm is later revealed) and make use of some special gadgets. A spinning top is played on the soundboard, and a thimble produces beautiful glissandos on the metal rods of the toy piano. At certain moments notes are also played on the keys in a conventional manner, but even these sounds burst into explosive glissandos. At the very end, a small music box enters the scene. Mounted on the soundboard, this little instrument plays the melody of the well known song, ‘Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will be, Will be)’, from the Hitchcock movie "The Man Who Knew Too Much". The magic of this piece probably also has to do with the fact that everything

Since 2005 I have written a number of solo compositions for the toy piano, some of them together with (live) electronics. In my piece "under wood" I am confronting the toy piano with conventional instruments for the first time. It is used as an exceptional solo instrument but also as some sort of exotic percussion. For this purpose I deconstructed one of the two instruments and prepared it in order to produce a variety of interesting percussive sounds. Finally, both instruments are amplified - not only to make them louder, but also to enable the player for creating delicate noises inside the instrument. The title "under wood" refers to a mechanical typewriter of the same name with its characteristic hammering sound. Besides, it can also be interpreted as the attempt to look behind the surfaces and to investigate the fascinating complexity that one discovers in the woods by changing the viewing perspective from the trees down to the earth: an almost impenetrable cosmos of independent, yet secretly connected g

This composition is a transformation of the original piano piece "Trois Cent Notes", in which the resonances of the sympathetic strings of the grand piano are simulated by electronic means. The toy piano becomes a new instrument with an artificial sustain pedal. https://www.essl.at/works/TCD.html

Karlheinz Essl's first piece for toy piano, composed 2005 for Isabel Ettenauer, became a signature piece for this instrument. The primary aim of this piece is an attempt to break up the restricted sound world of the toy piano - not by superficial means of additional sound processing, but by the sound of the instrument itself. This is achieved by a sound file which is played back by a small loudspeaker which is hidden inside the toy piano; this creates a perfect blend between the sounds of the instrument and the sounds from the loudspeaker. Info and score: http://www.essl.at/works/kalimba.html

Recorded by Isabel Ettenauer for the CD "whatever shall be - music for toy instruments and electronics" (edition eirelav, 2013) Having written several pieces for the toy piano before, I dedicated Sequitur V to this interesting instrument which — in fact — has not much in common with the piano as we know it. Its sound resembles chimes or maybe parts of a gamelan orchestra and therefore is not connected to the great history of classical piano music from Bach to Stockhausen; a fact that makes this instrument more accessible for me. Although the toy piano is tiny in every respect, the sound that it produces in Sequitur V becomes incredibly rich thanks to amplification and realtime sound processing. Info: http://www.essl.at/works/sequitur/sequitur-5.html

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in Piran (Slovenia) in 2021 and 2023: 1) stroll through the alleys of the old town 2) lively atmosphere of Piazza Tartini, where people meet in the afternoon 3) North coast with sea surf 4) beach scene with mother and child Part of the work-in-progress H.E.A.D. https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in libraries and bookstores in 2018 and 2023: 1) reading hall of the Austrian National Library in Vienna 2) a bookstore in Berlin, Moritzplatz 3) turning the pages of giant folios in the Klosterneuburg Abbey Library 4) setting up chairs for a reading in the same place Released: 14 Sep 2023 Info: https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded at different tram stations or tram rides in cities around the world: 1) riding a tram through Kyoto (Japan) 2) a tram stop at the main square in Linz (Austria) 3) a ride on tram 18 from Genève-Cornavin to CERN (Switzerland) 4) an intersection in Oslo where many trams pass by (Norway) Published: Aug 21, 2023 Info: https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded at different locations in Geneva between August 17 and 19, 2023: 1) pedestrian passage under the bridge where the lake becomes the Rhône river 2) Terrace in the historic center with a great view of the city 3) Breakfast in front of the Hôtel de la Cigogne 4) A motor vehicle cleaning the streets Part of the work-in-progress H.E.A.D. https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html