Towards a larger range of complexities

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Starting simpler and adding more things.

A few older tunes

I've decided to put a few more tunes up somewhere other than my SoundClick page. For those who'd prefer not to have to register, and to make them available on my Facebook page. (Sorry you have to join to see it. Not much there,believe me. Details on all the songs, including source code here under "Liner Notes".

Balloon Drum Music

Chain of Flowers

Mirror Walk

Subduction Zone

The Stick Shift Chevy Shake

Tsantsa Circle Dance

Whisper Song in 53 EDO

Slide Bassoon

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I solved the problem of the slide flute, with balloon membranes. I was challenged with changing the resonant frequency of a tube, and discovered that it was dependent on the flexibility of the walls of the enclosure. Instead of a complex mechanism of sliding tube lengths, all that was necessary was a balloon at both ends. Now, the Bassoon is more complex. I must resort to computer modifications:

lf 357 0 256 -7 1 64 1 128 1.7548172 64 1.7548172 ; 7:4 g56 up 43

Slides up by a 7:4, from C to Bb. Then from Bb to C

lf 324 0 256 -7 1 64 1 128 1.1397199 64 1.1397199 ; 8:7 g23 up 10


.bassoon10 &bas.&key.e16d72h76u3&gls7:4. u0d32h34t+43&gls8:7.


Sliding mid-range bent wires

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The bent wires now have choices. So many choices:

.mid-spring1 &mi3.d32r0 r16d0h72&key.&chortang*.d72
.mid-spring2 &mi3.d28r0 r16d2h52&key.&chortang*.d48 r16d0h26&key.&chortang*.d24 o-1d0h104&key.&chortang-a*.d0
.mid-spring3 &mi3.d28r0 r16d2h36&key.&chortang*.d72
.mid-springz1 &mi3.d104r0
.mid-springz2 &mi3.d104r0

&mid-spring1. will produce a 32 beat silence, then a 72 beat chord, which may or may not slide.
&mid-spring2. will produce a 28 beat silence, then an arpeggiated chord, and another, followed by a major chord that is held for 104 beats (a measure of 13 quarter notes).
The &mid-springz*. will be silent all 104 beats. What would you choose? I have a crude randomizer that picks them for me. Different most every time.

Alex Ross picks on Zune

Frank Hecker's blog Swindleeeee!!!!! has a post up tracking the number of Alex Ross's favorite CD's he could find on eMusic. Alex is the music critic of the New Yorker Magazine, an author and a blogger I follow.

I looked for the same CD's on Microsoft Zune.net service, MarketPlace. This is a subscription service for which I pay $45 a quarter to fill my zune with tunes on the go. I can download all I want, if I wanted anything they offered. So far, the non-pop selection is woefully inadequate. Of the 18 disks in Alex Ross's collection, I found 7 on the Zune service. That's pretty poor. Frank found 13 on eMusic.

Here's what I found:

Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians, Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble - Nope. Only the Nonesuch 9/13/05 version. No information available on who performed this or any other CD on the Zune service. Just Album title and small picture, Artist Name, and Track name. Poor.

Strauss, Salome, Teresa Stratas, Karl Böhm, Vienna Philharmonic (DG DVD) Nope. Just a few excerpts by other performers.

Handel Arias, Danielle de Niese and William Christie with Les Arts Florissants (Decca). Nope. Just one by Angelika Kirchschlager.

John Luther Adams, Red Arc/Blue Veil (Cold Blue). Yes.

Mozart, Don Giovanni, René Jacobs conducting (Harmonia Mundi). Nope. Just the Wilhelm Furtwängler version.

Previously:

Beethoven, Symphonies Nos. 3 and 8, Paavo Järvi conducting the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (BMG). Nope.

John Cage, Complete Short Works for Prepared Piano, Philipp Vandré (Mode). Yes.

Common Sense Composers’ Collective, tic, with the New Millenium Ensemble (Troy). Nope.

Beethoven, Piano Sonatas vol. 3, Paul Lewis (Harmonia Mundi). Yes.

Bach, Goldberg Variations, Simone Dinnerstein (Telarc). Available, but not to subscription users. You have to buy it for 79 cents a song.

Brahms, String Sextets, Nash Ensemble (Onyx). Nope.

Osvaldo Golijov, Oceana, with Dawn Upshaw, Luciana Souza, the Kronos Quartet, and Robert Spano conducting the Atlanta Symphony (DG). Yes, but not all tracks, only 9 of 12. Lame.

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: Live from Wigmore Hall, 1998; with Roger Vignoles, piano (Wigmore Hall Live). Nope.

Roussel, Symphony No. 3 and Bacchus et Ariane; Stéphane Denève conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Naxos). Yes.

As Steals the Morn...: Handel Arias and Scenes; Mark Padmore, tenor, with Andrew Manze conducting the English Concert (Harmonia Mundi). Yes.

Gershwin, Piano Concerto in F, Rhapsody in Blue, Cuban Overture; Jon Nakamatsu, piano, with Jeff Tyzik conducting the Rochester Philhamonic (Harmonia Mundi). Yes.

Alexandra Gardner, Luminoso (Innova). Yes.

What will he play next?

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The Bassoon can play any of these chords:

.chortanga1 t+0 t+17 t+14
.chortanga2 t+17 t+14 t+22
.chortanga3 t+31 t+22 t+17
.chortangb1 t+9 t+16 t+18
.chortangb2 t+25 t+18 t+19
.chortangb3 t+43 t+19 t+16
.chortanga4 t+0&gls9:8. t+17&gls11:10. t+14&gls7:6.
.chortanga5 t+17&gls11:10. t+14&gls7:6. t+22&gls9:8.
.chortanga6 t+31&gls7:6. t+22&gls9:8. t+17&gls11:10.
.chortangb4 t+9&gls10:9. t+16&gls12:11. t+18&gls8:7.
.chortangb5 t+25&gls12:11 t+18&gls8:7. t+19&gls10:9.
.chortangb6 t+43&gls8:7. t+19&gls10:9. t+16&gls12:11.
.chortanga7 t+0&gls7:8. t+17&gls9:10. t+14&gls11:12.
.chortanga8 t+17&gls9:10. t+14&gls11:12. t+22&gls7:8.
.chortanga9 t+31&gls11:12. t+22&gls7:8. t+17&gls9:10.
.chortangb7 t+9&gls8:9. t+16&gls10:11. t+18&gls6:7.
.chortangb8 t+25&gls10:11 t+18&gls6:7. t+19&gls8:9.
.chortangb9 t+43&gls6:7. t+19&gls8:9. t+16&gls10:11.

Where each t represents a note in the 53 tone equal scale. As it happens, t0 is C, t+17 is a just 5:4, and t+14 is a 3:2. t+9 is a 9:8, t+16 is an 11:8, and t+18 is 7:4. So we have the 4:5:6 chord and the 9:11:14 chord as choices, with inversions, and glides from one to the other. The Bassoon can play one or more of the notes simultaneously, so it might be a chord, or just a note.
If it chooses this one, it's just the last of three notes:

.bassoon1 &bas.&key.d16r0 o5d0e16&chortang*.d88&bas-ran*.h194

If it chooses this one, it's a chord:

.bassoon2 &bas.&key.d16r0 o5d0e16&bas-ran*.&chortang*.d88h194


Bassoon in the mix

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One, two, or three bassoons, who knows what can happen if you have a tasteful group of friendly musicians in a room.

Starting simple, growing complexity

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At first, we only allow the bass wires to play a very simple figure, then we give them more choices as the introduction proceeds. It's all up to them what they do.

Dinotang - it's Orange!

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More variety in the back beat chords.

Dinosaur Tango

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Back in the day, Tom Nunn and I had a piece that we named, after the fact, "Dinosaur Tango". It was a duo of Tom on one of his crustaceans plucking wires, and me on balloon flutes: first bass, then alto, then soprano as the pace quickened.

I've tried a dozen times over the years to duplicate the mood. Imagine a caveman sneaking into the den of a pair of dinosaurs. He discovers them dancing. Of course he joins in. Wouldn't you?

Dithyrambs of Dyspepsia

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Love those 8 against 13s.

For dessert here's some yellow mustard on chocolate cake

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I sure hope this 53-TET with glissandi using highly enharmonic samples doesn't sound too much like yellow mustard on chocolate cake.

How about some dry percussion?

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These are the extra sounds of the dry spring. The bent wire instrument sounds like what it must feel like when falling down a set of dark stairs in a decaying building while your coat is on fire. That's the glissando applied to each note. It's one of these four, depending on duration and chance.

f312 0 256 -7 1 256 1.0625; g11 glide up 17/16
f313 0 256 -7 1 256 .9375; g12 glide down 15/16
f314 0 256 -7 1 256 .875 ; g13 glide down 7/8
f315 0 256 -7 1 256 1.125 ; g14 glide up 9/8


Not a podcast

A pair of slightly longer excerpts here and here.

Controlling the indeterminacy

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There is a variable that determines the variability of the choices that can be made. It had been set very low for some reason. I decreased the likelihood of repeating a pattern and listen to the result. Controlling the indeterminacy.

And some even lower notes

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Added the bass bent wire spring instruments. And added a new glissando that drops the tones by .875, or 7/8.

Some low tones too

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Added the lower tones. Next look for some bass. Long time between bumpers, don't you think?

Back to the bent piano wire instrument

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Trying to figure out how to integrate this instrument into the work so far. It sounds more like a steel drum to me.

Mix the spring back in with the percussion

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Drop the sample a few octaves

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Here we have the .080" twisted piano wire instrument samples taken down a few octaves. Here's a picture of part of the instrument. It's made of .080" piano wire (very thick tempered steel wire), which is bent with a pair of plyers and a blow torch into interesting shapes. The wires are then brazed onto a steel plate, and magnetic transducers are attached to pick up the vibrations. Csound is used to drop the sample by 1, 2, or three octaves.

A few more notes for the balloon drums

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More notes for the balloon drums, including arpeggios instead of just repeating notes. I'm still trying to figure out how to have the 8 against 13 appear more rarely and not repeat so much. Indeterminate is not purely random, after all.

A bit more time

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Stay the same for a few bars, then change. The rhythm is 13 against 8. It doesn't sound as different as you might expect.

Just the balloon drums and the dry spring

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I keep removing more and more of the sounds to get more clarity. I deleted the bent spring and the welded piano wire sounds for now. I'll add them back. Or maybe piccolo?

Some Samples

Richard Boulanger is collecting samples to include with some Csound generating software. I volunteered to include the Finger Piano, Balloon Drum, and spring instruments I have been using, since I recorded them myself.

Here is a zip file.

Licensed under creative commons attribution 2.0.

Just a little more sparce

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I've reduced the frequency of the notes a bit. I also need to calm down the percussion. I need several different densities to be able to play with.

Busier than before

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Trying to get the repetitions to work.

A bit more of the steel drum melody

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Each note has a small glissando applied to it now, either up by a 17:16 or down by a 15:16. Just enough to not notice too much.