Thomas Mejer was born in Lucerne. He studied saxophone under Urs Leimgruber at the Lucerne School of Jazz, with Marcus Weiss at the Lucerne Conservatory and with Mick Green at the Dartington College of Arts. He studied composition under Vinko Globokar, Per Norgard, Michael Finnissy, Philip Grange and received his MA in music from Exeter University. Mejer has won several awards, including a fellowship grant awarded by the Swiss Musicians Association, the Marianne and Curt Dienemann Composition Scholarship, and a financial award from the City and Canton of Lucerne. He teaches saxophone at the Musikschule Luzern and music of the 20th century, instrumentation and counterpoint at the Musikhochschule Luzern.
Work list
Under the pool of Pilatus (1988)
Instrumentation: for piano
Duration: 15' 00" Manuscript
Alchemy I & II (1989-1991)
Instrumentation: for flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano and percussion
Duration: 8' 30" Manuscript
The Minstrel is Entering Virtual Reality (1989-1994)
Instrumentation: for instrumental ensemble (fl.ob.bcl/hn/hp/vn.va.vc)
Inconclusive, trembling and weighed down with emotion, the minstrel attempts to enter through the gate of virtual reality. He fulfils his aim in the second movement; his physical trembling becomes a psychological one.
Rhythmic superimpositions with simultaneous sonorous differentiation characterise the first and fourth movements. Movements two and three have song-like melodies, in which the second is slow and the third fast and very short (30").
Instrumentation: for choir (three parts each with SATB)
Texts: Pope Gregory
The choir is split into three groups and positioned in three different spaces, in several sections they are also set at different tempi. The musical vocabulary stretches from monotones to frightening clusters. The starting point of the composition was the 'Schweizer Fichenskandal' - this piece is a sort of parable of this scandal.
"The 'Sulpician Bilderwelt' unites Mejer's experience in the field of Jazz and electronic music in a formally convincing way. Between the multi-faceted jagged and fragmentary minimal motive in the first and fourth movements, Mejer has explored, in the organically developing middle movements, the best sound possibilities presented by the available setting." (LNN, May 1995, U. Mattenberger)
Instrumentation: for four wandering percussionists
A ring of instruments surrounds the audience. Four percussionists swap from one instrument to the next, accelerating as they do so, seeking the point at which tone and the power of rhythm meet.
This composition was written for 'The International Viola Book' and is dedicated to Andrew Toovey. In this piece, loosely based on the blues, the viola must alternate (and increasingly during the piece) fulfill all instrumental functions inherent in a jazz combo.
Instrumentation: for sopranino saxophone and alto flute
Duration: 4' 00" Manuscript
Uroboros Sends You His Regards (1993)
Instrumentation: for clarinet solo
"...a kind of meditation on chaos and calm. Besides the instruments, the application of the body, stamping, bells and drawn out pauses are brought together in a dramaturgical coherence..." (LZ, May 1994).
Instrumentation: for chamber orchestra (2.2.2.2/2.2.0.0/8.6.4.4.3)
By means of careful shading, melodic timbres with minimal dynamic variations and individual tempi, an attempt is made, using meagre materials and subtle means of figuration, to re-enact the two-liner by M. Herbener ("Nacht, dem Tag unterlegt / Der einzige Ton darüber ein Strich"). The harmony remains aleatoric but within a 'modal' framework.
Instrumentation: for conrabass flute, contrabass saxophone and contrabass tuba
Duration: 6' 30" Manuscript
Sternensturz (1995)
Instrumentation: for english horn (or alto saxophone) and vibraphone
This composition is based on a poem bearing the same name by Rose Auslander. It advances in stages from spoken image, through associated image, to aural image. Version a: cor anglais and vibraphone Version b: alto saxophone and vibraphone
An antiphon by Hildegard von Bingen is used as the basis of these contemplative works. The composition is notated in 147 breaths. A recorder (440 Hz) and a Baroque flute (415 Hz) play in succession and simultaneously.
Instrumentation: for contrabass saxophone (also baritone saxophone)
'Tartarelischer Tanz' comes from the Greek 'Tartaros' - the underworld where the souls of the dead repose in a happy and trouble less half state of being. Flittering 1/8 notes, only just audible as sound, build a spooky pulse which is animated in an irrational way by firmly pushed counter accents. (P.B.)
Instrumentation: for contrabass flute, contrabass sax or tuba
Duration: 14' 00" Manuscript
Chatterboxes Meet a Deer (2010)
Instrumentation: for KontraTrio (pic, tubax, tuba)
Duration: 8' 00" Manuscript
Resonances (2010)
Resonances of Wabash & Wabansia; Resonances of Washburne & Woodlawn
Instrumentation: für 4 KB-Sax
Duration: 46' 00" Manuscript
Princes' balls (2013)
Instrumentation: for contrabass flute, contrabass saxophone, tuba and sextet (fl, cl, pf, perc, vn, vc)
Written for the "Kontra-Trio" Lucerne and the "Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble", created for the project "Stravinskij Revisited".
Suite in five movements:
Wickedly
Obscured Beautiful
Insisting
Seductive
Concealed