Microtonal melodies – Miniature 1
The first piece, Miniature 1 will be performed by the ensemble Scenatet, on 12 November at Dansekapellet in Copenhagen. Miniature 1 was originally intended to premiere in New York a few years ago, but the performance was cancelled and now the piece finally comes to life. Dreyer explains that this piece is the first in his ‘Miniature’ series, which has since come to include a handful of pieces.
“It’s my first piece in that series, where I’ve experimented with this kind of setup. The musicians play on small glockenspiels fitted with transducers, and at the same time, they play keyboards where the sound is channeled through the transducers,” Dreyer says. The ensemble plays the same notes on both the glockenspiel and the keyboard, creating microtonal, detuned sine tones. According to Dreyer, the effect is a gentle and melodic atmosphere, and revisiting his first piece in the series, he is quite surprised how melodic, almost like a lullaby, his Miniature 1 sounds.
A solo for toy accordions – Chimera pt. 2
The second piece, a solo work composed for the French accordionist Bastien Pouillès, takes Dreyer’s experimentation further by incorporating toy accordions fitted with both transducers and contact microphones. The performer uses four toy accordions that serve as both instruments and feedback devices.
“By feeding signals from the microphones through the transducers, the accordions become their own feedback objects, and the performer can manipulate the sound both digitally and acoustically,” Dreyer explains, and elaborates: “It’s quite interesting, because it’s a little unpredictable, and also very fragile. The sound in the piece essentially consists of feedback, so it can easily get out of control.”
The setup is visually intriguing but according to Mads Emil Dreyer, it is conceptually quite simple: The accordions stand on a table, with one side fixated to the table, and you play by pulling them up.
“Unlike the Miniature piece, where everything is precisely notated, the performer’s role in Chimera pt. 2 is more interpretative and requires them to take a lot of responsibility in listening and reacting to the subtle shifts of the feedback,” Dreyer claims and adds: “This also gives me a slightly different role as a composer, where I let go of the control of the final outcome of the piece, and it all depends more on the collaboration between me and the musicians.”
Bridging older works – Interlude
The third piece will premiere at the Organ Sound Art Festival on 13 December, an event that celebrates organ-based sound art and music.
“The festival wanted to include two pieces from my album Disappearer in the programme -one for organ and another for bass flute - and at the same time, they commissioned a new piece to tie them together,” Dreyer says, and elaborates: “The two pieces they selected are nearly a decade old and reflect a specific period when my approach centred on live looping and digital processing. They’re ambient, and relatively static, and, in terms of the technical approach, quite different from the way I compose now. Creating a new work to bridge them in a meaningful way felt almost like I was contributing to someone else's music. It was refreshing to step into the logic of those earlier works, which contrast with my recent projects like the Miniature pieces or the accordion piece.”
The result is a simple, ostinato-driven piece scored for keyboard, chest organ, bass flute, and electronics. Here, the musicians have a more structured role compared to the accordion piece; everything is precisely notated, and their parts are synchronized with a tightly structured electronic sequence that responds to their playing.
“Composing this interlude alongside the accordion piece allowed me to explore two very different creative processes, shifting focus from personal style to serving the core musical idea,” Mads Emil Dreyer explains. “As composers, I think we often feel a need for our work to align with a distinct style or personal brand - an expectation we impose on ourselves. But in this case, it was liberating to set aside that impulse and simply focus on how the piece would coexist within the concert programme, even if it didn’t directly connect to my most recent work. Embracing this diversity in my own music, felt surprisingly freeing and enjoyable.”
Time and place
Miniature 1 performed by Scenatet 12 November 19.30 at Dansekapellet, Copenhagen, Denmark. Info
Chimera pt. 2 performed by Bastien Pouillès 5 December at Fondation Danoise, Paris, France.
Interludes performed by Fei Nie and Michaela Hansen 13 December at Organ Sound Art Festival, KoncertKirken, Copenhagen, Denmark