Slowing way down now

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I added a twinkle sound from the finger piano made up of 8 notes, each dropping in pitch by one degree of the 53-TET scale, getting softer, and moving from right to left, as in a Doppler shift of a fast moving flying object.

Slow Up & Down

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Another take with a fairy tale ending.

Even Slower Slow Up & Down

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This one takes the minute and stretches it out 3 times longer. Same notes and everything, just a change to the T0 table in Csound, and a few adjustments to the envelopes and volumes. I think I could keep this up for a while

Slow up & down

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After a long hiatus, I've been able to crank out 60 seconds of music. This one takes a chord of the overtone series 4:5:6:7:9:11 and slides it up and down to the same notes. 4 goes to 9 or 7, 7 goes to 4 or 6. Each note glides to it's nearest overtone, up or down. There's a finger piano arpeggio that just moves up and down a 53-TET interval while playing on the 4:5:6:7:9:11 notes. They start in synch, drift out and back twice in a minute. Scored for finger piano, tuba, trombone, flute, french horn in Csound.

60x60 Call for works

Heads up! All composers - All videographers - a new call for works

Vox Novus is the brain child of Robert Voisey. He assembles CD's and concerts of 60 second compositions by 60 different composers, called 60x60. Recently he worked with some dancers to accompany a 60x60 concert with 60 dances by 60 choreographers at theWinter Garden of the World Financial Center in NYC. A review in the NY Times was quite complementary.

Robert writes with a new call for works:

Did I forget to mention that there is another call for 60x60? Yes! With all the excitement I forgot to mention that there is a new call for 60 second works on recorded media. Here is the link: http://www.voxnovus.com/60x60/Call.htm

BUT WAIT! There's more!

In conjunction with New Media New Music New England We are lookiing for video too! Visit the following for details: http://www.nmnmne.org/what_if.html

I contributed one piece that was accepted in a Pacific Rim 60x60 mix, and highly recommend others do the same. 60 seconds can really focus the mind. And to hear your work played next to someone else's is fascinating.

FLAC's of The Soundtrack of the Donner Party

PDF of liner notes

The following files are FLAC files, but they are named with an extension of .fla . I couldn't get them to download when they were accurately named .flac. After you download them, rename them to xxxxxx.flac from xxxxxx.fla, or tell your FLAC decoder to read the .fla extension as a flac file. I don't have a clue why that is. Something web related. I'll have to figure this internets out some day. Sorry!

• Westering Journey FLAC



• Wagon Train Hoedown FLAC



• Hastings Cutoff FLAC



• Echo Canyon FLAC



• Into the Desert FLAC

Omar y los Bandeleros - Omar's Shuffle

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This is a piece I put together in 2000. It's the first of my "Fake but Accurate" pieces, based on samples, tuned to the Partch 43-tone tonality diamond. I used some restaurant samples and convolved it with a church, to make it sound like it was recorded live. There are restaurant noises to set the mood, and broken glass to punctuate the rhythm. It's scored for Tuba, Piccolo, Guitar, Marimba, Bongos, Trumpets, Trombones, and assorted implements available to waiters in a Mexican restaurant in Ajijic around the turn of the century. It's kind of an audio version of PhotoShop.

I wrote about it at the time, in 2000:

Omar and the Bandoleros are a band I first heard playing at a party in Ajijic, Mexico. Omar is the band's leader, as well as their tuba player. His wife Angelina plays the piccolo. Omar is tall and thin and has a neatly trimmed mustache. Angelina has let her weight get away from her, and is pushing 120 kilos, easy. Every Friday night they play Mariachi music in the moonlight for the wealthy retired Americans in Ajijic at the Posada. But on Saturday nights they move to the school gym off the town square and step up the tempo. Earlier, on the night these recordings were made, Angelina and Omar had been fighting over something. Enrique, the first trumpeter said it was over Omar loosing money at the cock fights. Roberto, the bongo player, felt that Angelina was angry over Omar spending all Friday afternoon helping the new guitar player, Rosa, learn the new changes. Angelina felt the new changes were not all for the good, if you know what I mean.

Omar wanted to diffuse the situation by playing some romantic music with Angelina, and that is how this tune starts. Francesco the marimba player begins the tune with a gently rocking ostinato in C major otonality. Omar entices Angelina to join in with a sweet bass line on his tuba. Hector and his trombone section join in to complement the sound. When Rosa joins in on guitar, the pace quickens rapidly. Pretty soon the tempo and the heat rise as it becomes clear Angelina wants more than sweet music from Omar. The group is rocking through some bizarre changes at 150 bpm.

After this recording was made, Omar left the stage with Angelina, and the remainder of the band finished out the set without them. Rosa was asked to leave the band the next day, and has been hanging out in Colorado with a guy named Nelson in Durango, driving a Suburban into town every day to pick up her mail and her royalty checks. Omar continues to lead the band every weekend, but Angelina is thinking of quitting to join the Guadalajara Philharmonic. She says she is going to be the next latin jazz piccolo legend ... with or without Omar.

I'm not sure where the group first learned to tune their marimba to the Partch 43 tone scale. Rosa the guitarist found her axe in a dumpster outside Peteluma and quickly fell in love with the big chords made possible with the otonality. Omar just likes the chance to show off his embrochure, if you know what I mean.

In a Landscape by John Cage

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I have adjusted the tuning a bit. The Bb is now a 4:3 above the F, which makes sense. The B at the end has been updated to an 11:8 over the F, giving the last note a bit more bite. Both changes were only a single step in the 53 TET tuning, but they make a big difference.

Here is a graph of the function table I use to make the finger piano have a more robust sustain. It attenuates the attack, and increases the strength of the later parts of the sound.

More work to do on this.

In a Landscape by John Cage

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I love this piece by John Cage. Especially the versions on piano by Stephen Drury and a version for American Gamelan by Gamelan Pacifica.

I've been thinking of what it would sound like on finger piano. Today I put the first ten measures down and it sounds ok. But it needs some work. Done with Csound and some finger piano samples from an instrument I made in 1978. I definitely need to work on the tuning. I picked a C overtone series, but the piece seems to be in D minor?

Into the Desert 3rd take

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I've been taking 4 passes through each of the pieces, and then listening to them to see which one has the best presentation of the key ideas. I've grown fond of take 3 in tonights walk through the Mercer Island forest. Damp, swampy, cold. Not at all like the desert. But this take captures the key focus. The sun is the short bent springs. The percussion is the relentless footsteps. The long springs are the threats that will not go away.

Into the Desert

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The next piece is to be used as the backdrop for crossing the Great Salt Lake Desert. From the Wiki, we can read:

* August 30, 1846: The Donner Party reaches Redlum Spring, the last source of water before the dry drive begins, then sets out to cross the Great Salt Lake Desert.

* September 1, 1846 (?): On the third day in the desert, the water runs out. That night, the Reeds' thirsty oxen run off, never to be found; the Reeds take a few things and set out on foot.

* September 3, 1846 (?): The emigrants finish the five-day journey across the eighty-mile desert, which Hastings had said was half as wide. They have lost 36 head of cattle, half of them Reed's, and four wagons have to be abandoned. They spend the next week at the foot of Pilot Peak recuperating from their ordeal, hunting for cattle, and caching their possessions.

It was very dry out there, I'm sure. This piece is scored for bent piano wires of various dimensions and appearance, amplified by magnetic transducers and sampled; my contact microphone wooden dry percussion board; a few orchestral cymbals; and samples from Jay C. Batzner's Mancala Samples. They're the ones that sound like a rattlesnake of sorts. The tuning is based on the utonality, but the samples are so enharmonic as to render the tuning moot.

Echo Canyon

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Today's work is in support of the scene when the Donner's are told that they basically have to hack their own path through the Wasatch Mountains. The Hastings Cutoff is bogus, and they are told to send someone ahead for further instructions.

The music is more like space lounge music, with little resemblance to the scene of the movie. Oh well. It's based on the utonality to the 15 limit, modulating to new keys by steps of the otonality. In the chart at the right (click it to enlarge), the utonality goes up and to the left, the otonality up and to the right.

We start in the bottom row C Ab F D+ B- Gb E- D-, then move up to E, then G, then Bb.

The piece is scored for Alto Flute, Vibraphone, Finger Piano, Tuba, French Horns, Trombones, dry spring percussion, and some other percussion samples. Enjoy the utonalicious triademonium.

Inside Echo Canyon

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Alto Flute, Vibraphone, Tuba, Finger Piano in a minor key, going in opposite directions.

At the Mouth of Echo Canyon

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August 6, 1846: The Donner Party stops at the mouth of Echo Canyon; Hastings has left a note for them, warning them that the road ahead is impassable and instructing them to send someone ahead to get instructions. James Reed and two others set out following the wagons tracks of Hastings' group.

Hasting's Cutoff - take three

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I've added a flute and oboe part, and also balloon drums. This is when they make the fateful decision to follow the Hastings Cutoff. The piece falls by a 53rd root of 2 (77:76) every few measures. By the time it finishes, we've gone down by 7:8. Slipping away...

Hasting's Cutoff - take two

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This one has better balance and bass.

Hasting's Cutoff

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Finger Piano and harp so far. I'd like to add some alto flute and some other instruments, but haven't had much success so far.

July 31, 1846: James Reed writes "Hastings Cutoff is said to be a saving of 350 or 400 miles and a better route. The rest of the Californians went the long route, feeling afraid of Hastings's cutoff. But Mr. Bridger informs me that it is a fine, level road with plenty of water and grass. It is estimated that 700 miles will take us to Captain Sutter's fort, which we hope to make in seven weeks from this day." At the fort the emigrants take on some new members. Now numbering 74 people, the Donner Party leaves Fort Bridger and starts out on Hastings Cutoff.

Wagon Train Hoedown

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I finished the first draft of the second piece.

May 19, 1846: At Indian Creek, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Independence, the Donners and Reeds join a larger wagon train, which is led by Colonel William Henry Russell.

The piece is scored for violins, violas, cellos, double bass, and flutes. The intonation is the overtones to the 11 limit, in C, Ab, F, D+, which are the utonality keys to the 7 limit.

On to the Hastings Cutoff next.

Westering Journey - another cut

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April 14, 1846: Journey begins at Springfield, Illinois. The travelers are George Donner, his brother Jacob, and James Frazier Reed, with their families. Each man has three covered wagons and has hired men (teamsters) to drive the oxen that pull them; Reed also has two servants. The destination of the first leg is Independence, Missouri, where the Oregon and California trails begin; the distance from Springfield to Independence is about 250 miles (400 kilometers). The trip is timed to begin when the spring rains have subsided and grass for the draft animals is available, and to end before snow makes the Sierra Nevada impassable.

Wagon Train

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May 19, 1846: At Indian Creek, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Independence, the Donners and Reeds join a larger wagon train, which is led by Colonel William Henry Russell. And they are on their way.

Westering Journey - First Draft

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I've found a beginning, a middle, and an ending for the first piece of the sound track for an unmade movie on the Donner Party. The first chords are made by sliding each note of a major chord by just enough to take a 4:5:6 to a 9:11:14. The 4 (1:1) goes to a 9:8 major second, the 5:4 (major third) goes to the 11:8 tritone, and the 3:2 (major fifth) goes to a 7:4 flat seventh. And some go the other direction, with some inversions thrown in for variety. The chords are played slowly and with complex envelopes that serve to move the sound around in stereo space.

It's all generated by the following code:
@
.slid-maj-u-a513 o-1t+31&gls7:6. t+22&gls9:8. t+17&gls11:10.
.slid-maj-u-b472 o-1t+25&gls12:11. t+18&gls8:7. t+19&gls10:9.
.slid-maj-d-a135 t+0&gls7:8. t+17&gls9:10. t+14&gls11:12.
.slid-maj-d-b724 o-1t+43&gls6:7. t+19&gls8:9. t+16&gls10:11.
@ very slow part
.flut-maj-384-c1 &flut.o+1d0h420e20&key.v-3&slid-maj-d-b7*.d384
.frnh-maj-384-c1 &frnh.o+1d0h420e21&key.v-3&slid-maj-u-b4*.d384
.trom-maj-384-c1 &trom.o+1d0h420e22&key.v-3&slid-maj-d-b7*.d384
.basn-maj-384-c1 &basn.&key.h420e23t-10&gls8:7.
.flut-maj-384-c2 &flut.o+1d0h400e21&key.v-3&slid-maj-u-b4*.d384
.frnh-maj-384-c2 &frnh.o+1d0h400e22&key.v-3&slid-maj-d-b7*.d384
.trom-maj-384-c2 &trom.o+1d0h400e20&key.v-3&slid-maj-u-b4*.d384
.basn-maj-384-c2 &basn.&key.h420e24t+9&gls8:9.
.flut-maj-192-c3 &flut.o+1d0h210e21&key.v-3&maj3-u-a*.d192
.frnh-maj-192-c3 &frnh.o+1d0h210e22&key.v-3&maj3-u-a*.d192
.trom-maj-192-c3 &trom.o+1d0h210e20&key.v-3&maj3-u-a*.d192
.basn-maj-192-c3 &basn.&key.h220e24
.flut-maj-384-c4 &flut.o+1d0h400e20&key.v-3&slid-maj-d-a1*.d384
.frnh-maj-384-c4 &frnh.o+1d0h400e21&key.v-3&slid-maj-u-a3*.d384
.trom-maj-384-c4 &trom.o+1d0h400e22&key.v-3&slid-maj-d-a5*.d384
.basn-maj-384-c4 &basn.&key.h400e23&gls7:8.
@ start playing
@ very slow part
@ start 135 go to 247
&flut-maj-384-c4.
&frnh-maj-384-c4.
&trom-maj-384-c4.
&basn-maj-384-c4.
@
@ stay 135
&flut-maj-192-c3.
&frnh-maj-192-c3.
&trom-maj-192-c3.
&basn-maj-192-c3.
@
@ start 247 go 135 from the top
&flut-maj-384-c2.
&frnh-maj-384-c2.
&trom-maj-384-c2.
&basn-maj-384-c2.
@
@ start 247 go 135 from the bottom
&flut-maj-384-c1.
&frnh-maj-384-c1.
&trom-maj-384-c1.
&basn-maj-384-c1.

Today's post is as far as I can take this piece and still meet my internal target of 10 pieces or 35 minutes of music recorded during the month of February. I have a nice long train ride tonight, so maybe I can make progress on the next piece, which is based on the May 19, 1846 incident: At Indian Creek, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Independence, MO, the party joined up with a larger wagon train to make the trek west.

Westering Journey opening

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Perhaps an opening here. Or maybe just a start.

The Journey

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I ordinarily take about 3-6 months, sometimes more, to create a 5 minute piece of music. I can only devote around ten to twenty minutes each day to composing. And each note takes a bit of time to get right using my hand coding of Csound input. Slow but steady, you might say.

So it is with some trepidation that I've undertaken to participate in the RPM Challenge 2008: Record an album of ten songs or 35 minutes of music during the month of February 2008. That's about 60 times faster than my ordinary work habits. But what the hell, I'll give it a go.

To try to focus my mind around the challenge, I'm writing a sound track to an imaginary movie about the Donner Party. You know, the forlorn group that set out in April 1846 for California, only to be waylaid by a late October snowstorm while trying to cross the Sierras. Many starved to death over the next few months as their meager rations ran out. Half did not make it to Sacramento. Those that did told horrid tales of cannibalism. I've been thinking about an opera based on the story for many years, but that's too much for this effort.

Here's today's start of the first scene, when the participants set out from Springfield, IL, headed for Independence, MO. There is optimism in the air. As the wiki says: The trip is timed to begin when the spring rains have subsided and grass for the draft animals is available, and to end before snow makes the Sierra Nevada impassable.

Up the scale on the otonality, down on the utonality

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A variation on the Bassoon solo.

Making the 13 more clear with some dry spring percussion

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There is nothing like a little percussion to get the beat straight. It's in 13, with three subdivisions of 3 and two of 2. These five subdivisions are randomly mixed up, sometimes it's 3 3 3 2 2, sometimes 3 2 3 3 2, and so on.