Why do you collaborate with ESS and when did the collaboration start?
-The collaboration began a little more than a year ago. For years I have collaborated with scientists on both artistic and research projects, and just generally been inspired by scientific ideas applied to music composition.
-Before coming to Sweden, I read about the development of ESS and had the idea to approach them to propose some sort of collaboration between the arts and science. Well, through a chance meeting I met one of the scientists at ESS, Dr. John Weisend and through numerous conversations we developed a Memorandum of Understanding between ESS, Lund and the MHM.
-The reason for pursuing a collaboration is that I feel new principles and processes from other disciplines, such as physics, can inform and inspire new forms and procedures in music composition.
Tell us about the music, why did you choose percussion ensemble quartet as form?
-I had already planned to write for the quartet through personal contact with its director Prof Olaf Tzschoppe at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen, though the exact choice of the instruments was not central to the form of the piece. In fact, I wanted to explore a contradictory phenomenon, that involved exploring sustained sounds on normally iterative (struck) instruments, such as drum, bells and marimba/vibraphone, in order to produce beautiful sounds to me, which are often nasty, uncooperative, ugly and disturbing to others.
What is the title ”Der Rufer” refering to?
-Der Rufer refers to the statue in Bremen that refers to an historical person similar to the ancient bard, in this case a soldier of distinction who would give motivational speeches to his troupes before battle.
When can we expect to hear this music live?
-Tentatively, we have the premiere scheduled for October 8 at the Inter Arts Center. We are also looking into the potential for having a second performance in the future in the Science Village associated with Max IV and ESS.
Learn more about Michael Edgerton
About ESS
ESS is a unique facility for materials research outside of Lund. It can be likened to a giant microscope, where neutrons are fired at different types of material so that they can be analysed in detail. ESS will be responsible for future research breakthroughs in medicine, environmental science, climate, communication and transport.