Peter Thoegersen

Peter Alexander Thoegersen (born June 29, 1967) is an American composer, music theorist and drummer best known as a theorist and practitioner of a variety of music called polytempic polymicrotonality.

Composer Kyle Gann provides a detailed introduction to Thoegersen's practice in his liner notes to the CD "Three Pieces in Polytempic Polymicrotonality" on New World Records. He begins by saying that he has spent a lifetime explaining radical music, and calls the music on the disc the most radical he's ever written about. He says, radically, Thoegersen has musical layers simultaneously moving in different tempos, plus, even moreso, in different microtonal scales playing at the same time. Nevertheless, Gann contrasts the resulting "fervent and heterogeneous multidimensionality" with an emergent level of charm and simplicity that belies the initial impression.

Gann has it from Thoegersen himself that Thoegersen begins composing by working out rhythms with his hands and feet and that Thoegersen thinks of pitch as of coloring the rhythmic skeleton. Thoegersen, Gann says, is "not ideologically committed to either the dissonant or consonant end of the tonal spectrum." Gann says Thoegersen avoids "the long-overworked duality of tonal vs. atonal" and thinks about pitch in terms of centricity, namely using certain pitches as anchor points and stacking similar intervals around them in both directions.

He likens the overall effect "to a carefully composed environmental recording." Gann does make it clear that the details matter, specifically the relationships between the chosen simultaneous tempi and the simultaneous microtonal tunings in any particular Thoegersen composition; readers interested in the details of Gann's analysis should seek out his notes.^[1]

Gann in the liner notes also states that "...by going further than anyone else has gone in terms of this particularly American concept of fusing the polytempic with the polymicrotonal--extending and combining the conceptual worlds of Ives, Nancarrow, Partch, Carter and even Frank Zappa, he (Thoegersen) has created a special place for himself within American music."^[2]

Thoegersen's monograph "Polytempic Polymicrotonal Music"^[3] stands now as the basic reference for this compositional tactic. Polytempic polymicrotonal ensemble music moves simultaneously in multiple independent tempi and sounds simultaneously in multiple independent intonational systems (whether equal temperaments or just intonational systems). The monograph both guides contemporary composers into this novel approach and practice (which can accommodate multiple styles), and establishes diverse historical precedents reaching back to Ancient Greece (in particular Aristoxenus of Tarentum), the Middle Ages (in particular Boethius), the Renaissance (Gioseffo Zarlino and Nicola Vicentino) and many 20th century composers, especially Charles Ives and Jean Etienne Marie. Thoegersen singles out Ives's Universe Symphony as the first fully polytempic polymicrotonal work. Thoegersen's analysis of the ratio relationships between the three orchestras that constitute the Universe Symphony, is cited by Johnny Reinhard.^[4]

Thoegersen has composed many works exploring polytempic polymicrotonality. Reviewing Thoegersen's CD: Milko. Irrational Quartet. Herniated Lumbar Discs Much Better Now, New World (with notes by Kyle Gann), Robert Carl ^[5] notes that this music is "unlike almost anything you've ever heard. Readers take note, and hardy souls may respond" and suggests bring "a laser-like and microscopic intensity to one's listening." Carl cites Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez and Milton Babbitt as composers from a previous generation whose music had a similar feeling of "pure research", a fresh sound emerging from a fresh method.

Writing on Thoegersen's song cycle "Facebook: What's On Your Mind? 2016 - 2020", Gerard Pape says "Thoegersen's work exists at an intersection of freedoms: musical and social, where one might at once sound the musical limit of free sound and the social limit of «free speech. His work is both courageous and dangerous to academia. No easy categories for this music. We are in the no-man's land of unlimited freedom far from job security and clear social status."^[6]

Thoegersen freely distributes his scores via the Internet Archive.^[7] Scores for all the works below are available there. Dates indicate composition.

• 3:4:5:7, for Solo drumset #1 1995
• Solo for Drumset #2 2022
• Solo for Drumset #3 2022
• Solo for Drumset #4 2022
• Solo for Drumset #5 2022
• Solo for Drumset VI 2022
• STSOMA Drumsolo #7 2022
• solo for drumset #8 2022
• Solo for Drumset #9 2022
• Solo for Drumset X: polymixtures 2022
• Drumset solo #11 2022

• Always Sleeping 2006
• Facebook Song Cycle: What's on your mind, 2017

• Dreams Like Little Movies, for solo bassoon 2016
• I Am A Force Of Nature, for solo trombone 2018
• Jove Defeats Saturn, polymicrotonal saxophone solo 2011
• May The Force Be With You, solo bass trombone 2017
• Vibes Solo 2020
• Vibraphone Solo 1b 2020
• Solo for C Flute in Polymicrotonality 2018
• Solo for Bb Clarinet 2002
• Sit Down and Shut Up, for microtonal Horn in F 2011
• Solo for Oboe: polymicrotonal modulations around a 12tet framework 2019
• Trumpet Solo in Bb: Polymicrotonal modulations 2019
• Solo for Contrabass Clarinet in Bb at the 8th tone 2024

• Duo for Drumset and Piano in Polymeter 2022
• Duo for Harp and Percussion in Polytempic Polymicrotonality 2019
• Harp part for Duo for Harp and Percussion 2019
• Masterdangler, for bassoon and guitar 2017
• Music for 13tet Microtonal Flute and Drumset in Polytempo 2022
• Music for Drumset and 22tet Microtonal Cello in Polymeter/polytempo 2022
• Rondo: duet for two saxophones 1997
• Saturn Eats His Child, for piano and saxophone 2007
• PolyReinosaurus Rex, for bassoon and drumset 2016
• Summer in Helsinki, microtonal duo for bassoon and violin 2017
• Skullen a Coldie at the Servo w/M8ts, for two Bb Horns in Polytempic Polymicrotonality 2020
• sub specie aeternitatis, for two vibraphones 2020

• Wind Trio in Polymicrotonality 2023
• Suite For Clarinet, Cello, and Drumset 2002

• Polymicrotonal Etude XVII, for mixed quartet 2024

• Percussion Series II: The wrath of the "Connies" 2019
• there's nothing that can't be done, for percussion quartet 2005

• Andante Democratico, for flute, bassoon, drumset, Horn in F and C Trumpet 2002
• Brass Quintet #1 2001
• Harmiklot's Revenge, for Woodwind Quintet 2005
• Mixed Quintet #2, for Piano, viola, Harp, Guitar, and Marimba 2024

• F 5 (standard tuning) 2005
• Milko (polytempic polymicrotonal) 2013
• Two Worlds: quartertone quintets in conversation 2003

• Gorgeous Monstrosity 2005
• Drums Of War 2005

• Piano Collection I: #1-4 1999
• Piano Collection 2 2002
• Piano Collection 3 2010
• Piano Collection 4 2016
• Piano Collection 5 2016
• Piano Collection VI: Mikrokomplexmos 2016
• Piano Collection VII 2016
• Piano Collection 8 2016
• Piano Collection IX: 'Ten Finger' 2017
• Piano Collection X: "Singularity" 2017
• Piano Collection XI: "Ewe" 2017
• Piano Collection XII 2017
• Piano Collection XIII: Ode to Henry Cowell 2017
• Piano Collection XIV 2017
• Piano Collection 15a : I can't walk... 2017
• Piano Collection XV: "Herniated Lumbar Disks" 2018
• Piano Collection 16: in treatment 2019
• Piano Collection 17 a-f 2020
• Piano Collection 18: gratis mutandis 2022
• Piano Collection 19: quod libet 2022
• Piano Collection XX: "your interpretation" 2023
• Piano Collection XXI: new beginning 2024
• Piano Collection 22: Maximus 2024
• Piano Collection 23: Maximus Part Deux 2024

• String Quartet #1 1999-2022
• String Quartet #2: Hypercube, for Polytempic Polymicrotonal Strings 2012
• String Quartet #3 2013
• String Quartet IV: Irrational Quartet 2018
• String Quartet V 2018
• String Quartet VI 2018
• String Quartet VII: two-bow quartet 2019
• String Quartet VIII: post post post structuralist 2019
• String Quartet #9: Fractured Consciousness 2019
• String Quartet X: irrational quartet ii 2019
• String Quartet XI: 7 C's 2019
• String Quartet XII: BIG BAD MOTHER FUCKER FROM OUTER SPACE 2019
• String Quartet xiii: poly-just intonation quartet 2019
• String Quartet #14: "armageddonouttahere" 2019
• String Quartet XV, in three movements 2020
• String Quartet XVa: It Is Now; a polymicrotonal quartet in monody (alternate version) 2019
• String Quartet #16: COVID-19, the world pandemic 2020

• Symphony I in Polytempic Polymicrotonality 2023
• Symphony II: five short pieces for polytempic polymicrotonal orchestra 2013
• Symphony III IN FULL POLYTEMPIC POLYMICROTONALITY IN FOUR MOVEMENTS 2024

• "Three Pieces in Polytempic Polymicrotonality" / New World Records, 80812-2; New World Records, 2019
• "Alien Music" / Magic and Unique Music Publishing, 2022
• "THOEGERSEN, PETER - Facebook: What's On Your Mind? 2016 - 2020" /FLEA004, 2021
• "Polytempic Polymicrotonal Music in Four Pieces" 2024 https://fragmentsofblue.bandcamp.com/album/polytempic-polymicrotonal-music-in-four-pieces
• "Harmiklot: an American Tragedy" 2024 https://fragmentsofblue.bandcamp.com/album/harmiklot-an-american-tragedy
• "Soliloquy in Monopolymicrotonality" Compilation Album 2019 https://georgechristian.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-exposed-minds-without-frontiers-gcsa-27

• Polytempic Polymicrotonal Music / Jenny Stanford Publishing, Peter Thoegersen, (2022)
• Maqam Melodies : Pitches, Patterns, and Developments of Music in the Middle East and other Microtonal Writings / Jenny Stanford Publishing, Peter Thoegersen, (released August 7th, 2024)

• Peter Thoegersen's SoundCloud page
• Peter Thoegersen's BandCamp page
• Peter Thoegersen's scores
• Bounced Around; Gorgeous Monstrosity; Indian Summer; Polymicrotonality Study IV; Alien Music; Slings and Arrows; Iraq; Polymicrotonal Etude VII
• Anton Rovner's review of Peter Thoegersen's music on p.77
• Peter Thoegersen's Youtube Channel