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WRITINGS

Writings: What I Do

ANALYTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON CHAYA CZERNOWIN'S SAHAF (2008)

This article looks at the use of metaphor in the projection and development of musical ideas in Chaya Czernowin's Sahaf (2008) for saxophone, electric guitar, percussion, and piano. In particular, the essay makes the argument that the ratchet as well as the terms used for the English and German titles of the work - drift and Gestöber - are fundamental metaphors for the design of the work, sources that allow the composer to shape the energy and motion within the composition.

THE SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF PETER IVAN EDWARDS (2006)

This is an article written in 2006 at request for publication, but the publication fell through. So, I am making it available here. The article is an "interview" with myself that explores aesthetic and composition issues in my music at that time. It is a historical document - my thinking in composition has evolved in the last 13 years - but there is still a lot of resonance with my current thinking to make it worthwhile to share here.

ON CROSSROADS (27 MARCH 2019)

The week of 25 March 2019 I spent at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City attending the 10th Anniversary of the Manila Composers Lab. This annual event is organized by Dr. Jonas Baes and his students and staff. I was asked to participate, leading a session with the student composers and offering a lecture on the topic of crossroads. My audience was largely students from UP and the MCL composers who came from the South East Asian countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

HELMUT LACHENMANN: SOUND TYPES OF NEW MUSIC

This is a translation of Helmut Lachenmann's Klangtypen der neuen Musik (Sound Types of New Music). I made a rough translation of this article many years ago, and recently revised that translation with the aim to publish it and disseminate more broadly. While this waits for publication in some journal, I don't see any reason not to share it on the web. In my perspective, this is a critical document for composers. I spent a long time pondering its implications on the relationship between sound, its properties, and musical structure and what those relationships mean for my own composing. I think such pondering can be very fruitful.

TROMPONG AND ITS CREATIVE FRAMEWORK

This short essay documents the creative process used by Zero Crossing (Max Riefer and myself) in making Trompong, a structured improvisation for percussion and electronics featuring only trompong pots from a Balinese gamelan. It attempts to articulate a thought process that is cyclical and responsive to the nature of the instruments, the potential of the electronic processing, and the evolution of the musical structure.

ON IRAMA MABUK (2018)

This essay offers a brief introduction to the central Javanese musical concept called irama and illustrates how this concept is employed in my work Irama Mabuk for 25 almglocken. The work was created with computational tools, which are also explored. Because I wrote this essay for a more general audience (musicians and composers rather than computer music specialists), I have included extensive explanation of the code.

AN INTRODUCTION TO CODING IN SONIC PI

This is an (incomplete) introduction to computing and coding in Sonic Pi written to give a good basis for understanding the code I use in my Rojak pieces. If you are interested in learning coding for music compositional purposes, then read this introduction and take a look at the code for my Rojak pieces. I hope this introduction gives readers more confidence to explore my scores and see what is inside the music's design.

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