Peter Thoegersen
I am a drummer/composer from Los Angeles, California, with a Doctorate of Musical Arts in music composition and theory from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012. I wrote my thesis on polytempic polymicrotonal music, as a potentially new 21st century polyphonic musical aesthetic, and about which my new upcoming book is based via this publisher. I currently live in Portland, Oregon, and I have three albums out on New World, Flea, and Magic&Unique labels.
Subjects: Music
Biography
Peter Alexander Thoegersen, DMA, (1967)Born in Los Angeles in 1967, Thoegersen earned his Doctorate in Music Composition at the University
of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 2012. Thoegersen has had his works premiered in Europe, Australia,
and the United States and his eponymous CD Three Pieces in Polytempic Polymicrotonality, released
by New World records, 2019, has had nine reviews and has made three top ten lists for 2019's best cd's.
Currently, Thoegersen has had his song-cycle Facebook: What's on your mind? released on Flea
records April, 2021. Thoegersen wrote his thesis on Polytempic Polymicrotonality, previously
untouched as a stylistic genre, with only one single precursor in the literature, Charles Ives's Universe
Symphony, 1915, (unfinished until Reinhard's version, 1996). Polytempic Polymicrotonality offers
expansive potential for the re-emergence of pitch and rhythm in contrast to extended technique noise
gestures prevalent today. Thoegersen, a drummer, extrapolates rhythms and explores polytempo and
four way independence, wherein each independent "limb" becomes its own part, or voice, with its own
tempo, and ultimately, its own microtonal system--approaching a radical new polyphony not yet
practiced in musical literature. Thoegersen lives in Portland, Oregon.
Education
-
DMA, University of Illinois@Urbana-Champaign, 2012
MM, California State University, Los Angeles, 2003
BA, Electronic Music, Cal-State Dominguez Hills, 2000
Websites
Books
Articles
Alien Music
Published: Mar 24, 2022 by Magic&Unique Group label
Authors: Peter Thoegersen
Subjects:
Music
ALIEN MUSIC, the latest Album by composer, percussionist and Music researcher Peter Thoegersen will be released on March 24, 2022 on MAGIC&UNIQUE RECORDS catalogue. The record release by this visionary composer/drummer from Oregon is highly anticipated by lovers of sound experimentation and international electronic music.
Facebook: what's on your mind? A polymicrotonal song cycle
Published: Apr 10, 2021 by FLEA label
Authors: Peter Thoegersen
Subjects:
Music
This album is an homage to both Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Easley Blackwood's graded series of microtonal etudes. This song cycle begins in 13tet and ends in quartertones at the 22nd canto. Cantos 12-22 are a conjoined segue while the soprano improvises words typed into Peter Thoegersen's Facebook Profile wall, live. This piece is about social media in the digital age of "cringe" and TMI: too much information.
Three Pieces in Polytempic Polymicrotonality
Published: Feb 15, 2019 by New World Records
Authors: Peter Thoegersen
Subjects:
Music
This eponymous CD exhibits the polytempic polymicrotonal aesthetic of Peter Thoegersen by stratifying multi-layered polyphonic lines constructed in differing tempos and tunings, thus altering musical space as we know it into a new kind of 21st century counterpoint. All works are composed for synthesizer and acoustic instruments.
News
Review from Ettore Garzia, of Percorsi Musicali
By: Peter Thoegersen
Subjects: Applied Arts & Music, Music
Polytempic Polymicrotonal Music is reviewed by Etorre Garzia, from the e-zine Percorsi Musicali
Polytempic Polymicrotonal Brass Duo premiere at the Sydney Microfest, 2022
By: Peter Thoegersen
Subjects: Applied Arts & Music, Music
(on performing polytempic polymicrotonal music of Peter
Thoegersen)
‘Gritty, uncompromising musical relations bound together by the
intensity of my work
with another musician to bring the sounds to life. I could imagine
that some of the
musical gestures could be achieved through heterophony yet that
grittiness I felt acutely
during rehearsals and performance of Skullen a Coldie and the Servo
with M8tes would
have dissipated if the polytempic composing and performance
expectation had been
missing. The beauty of each instrument having its distinct yet
related set of intervals is
the pitch integrity that is both felt and heard almost as if we
were co-conspirators in a
theatrical plot. Working with both polytempi and polymicrotonality
really brought an
edginess to our performance and a determination to not only start
and finish together but
revel in the moments of near concordance and genuine
contention.’
-Michael Dixon, hornist, Co-Founder & Curator at Sydney
Microfest
Videos
Published: Aug 01, 2022
Performance of Skullen a Coldie at Kogarah, Sydney, for the Microfest held by Michael Dixon, horn in F, on June 12th, as he navigates through my polytempic polymicrotonal duo, with Trombonist Greg Van der Struik, who both obviously are loving playing this music. Performance is quite lovely, showing how well poly does extend to live players. Both musicians are in completely different tempi and rhythmic structures as well as tuning.