Dancing around Elk Lake

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Trying out some material for a dance piece. This is just the mallet instruments for now. I'm finding ways to divide up 30 beats. More later.

Elk Lake is a small alpine lake above Glacier Creek, before it empties into the Hoh River, with a nice small campground.

The Rocks of Glacier Creek

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This is another take of this piece. It's scored for environmental sounds and a small ensemble of skilled microtonalists. The environmental sounds are recordings of a gentle waterfall and some birds typically found at the confluence of Glacier Creek and the Hoh River or thereabouts. The birds are the Hermit Thrush, the Black Throated Blue Warbler, the Stellar's Jay, the Hairy Woodpecker, the Pileated Woodpecker, and the Warbling Vireo.

The small ensemble of skilled microtonalists include clarinet, oboe, vibraphone, marimba, finger piano, cello, and harp. They are asked to accurately play the 53 TET scale, and also carefully slide up a set number of steps, for example, by 8 or 10 steps (approximating the ratios of 11:10 or 8:7 respectively). These guys are amazing in their flexibility and accuracy. I ask them to pick the chord inversion they want, and then slide up or down by a predetermined amount. My vibraphone player has perfected the art of bending his aluminum bars just the right amount to descend by a 6:7 (12 steps in 53-TET).

As always, this music is fake but accurate. Here is some of the coding for the sliding chords. The following is put through my Csound preprocessor to generate the necessary Csound code.

.slid-min3-u-a135 t+0&gls11:10. t+14&gls10:9. t+17&gls8:7.
.slid-min3-u-a351 o-1t+14&gls10:9. t+17&gls8:7. t+22&gls11:10.
.slid-min3-u-a513 o-1t+31&gls8:7. t+22&gls11:10. t+14&gls10:9.
.slid-min3-d-a531 o+1t+31&gls8:9. t-17&gls10:11. t-14&gls6:7.
.slid-min3-d-a153 o+1t+0&gls6:7. t-22&gls8:9. t-17&gls10:11.
.slid-min3-d-a315 t+14&gls10:11. t-14&gls6:7. t-22&gls8:9.
.slid-min3-u-b247 t+7&gls11:10. t+15&gls9:8. t+19&gls7:6.
.slid-min3-u-b472 o-1t+22&gls9:8. t+19&gls7:6. t+19&gls11:10.
.slid-min3-u-b724 o-1t+41&gls7:6. t+19&gls11:10. t+15&gls9:8.
.slid-min3-d-b274 o+1t+7&gls10:11. t-19&gls7:8. t-19&gls9:10.
.slid-min3-d-b427 o+1t+22&gls9:10. t-15&gls10:11. t-19&gls7:8.
.slid-min3-d-b742 t+41&gls7:8. t-19&gls9:10. t-15&gls10:11.

To call the chord, I just have to write code for each instrument, like this:

.mari-16-min-1f &mari.&key.e16w0d0h17&slid-min3-d-a*.d16
.mari-16-min-1g &mari.&key.e16w0d0h17&slid-min3-d-b*.d16

Then I call it when I want it to play like this:

&mari-16-min-1*.

The asterisk is a "don't care" character. This way, I can create several different note strings and let the computer pick the one it wants him to play at any given moment. Notice that the -a chords are the utonality triad to the 5 limit, and the -b are the higher overtones to the 11 limit. The chord slides from one to the other.

The &gls11:10. variables invoke a Csound function table that slides a note up or down over its duration by a very specific amount and timing. I basically multiply a note by a table of 256 values from 1 to a number larger or smaller than 1. Here is the relevant Csound code for a function table that slides a note to which it is applied by an 8:7. 8 divided by 7 is 1.14285714.

;f# step start at 1, stay there for 48 of the 256 steps
; move to 1.14285714 over 128 steps
; stay there for 80 of the 256 steps.
f324 0 256 -7 1 48 1 128 1.14285714 80 1.14285714 ; 8:7 g23 up 10


The Rocks at Glacier Creek

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The water moves quickly as it descends from the higher elevations. It tends to form eddies where the rocks block the flow. The water swirls to fill the gaps. Later, the rocks fall away and the water flows unimpeded down the valley. Soon, the rocks pile up and slow the water again.

Rocks at Glacier Creek

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This one is in 9: 5/4 + 4/4. There is a later section that shifts to some other combinations. This is a sketch for now.

At the Terminus of the Blue - Take 2

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I was able to get the crew to come in early for one more take. We went out to the headwaters of Glacier Creek, where it moves down slope past a forest of high pines. Omar couldn't lug his tuba up this high, and the vibes player said no, but the clarinet, oboe, marimba, finger piano, and harp were included. Celebrate the otonality with triademonium to the 11 limit.

Note: I had to load a second copy due to a name conflict. Sorry!

At the Terminus of the Blue

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This is the first take of the day, and it's a keeper.

At the Terminus of the Blue - more sketches

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I'm trying to work out a contrasting theme, but I'm stuck on a chord that doesn't sound right. More later.

The picture at the right is from a slide show at Carlton College's Illustrated Guide to a Glacier.

Walking Down Blue Glacier

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I was able to convince the gang to stick around for a few more takes of the piece. Thanks to Omar the tuba player for helping me revoice the winds to lower octaves. We spent all day Sunday running new takes, but something seemed to get in the way with each one. Finally we were able to get a good run through on the 17th try Monday morning. This one includes clarinet, oboe, tuba, marimba, vibes, finger piano, harp, and cello, plus the opening notch filtered wind tunnel sound recorded at the NASA Ames Research Center. As always, fake but accurate is my motto. Blue Glacier starts near the top of Mount Olympus, and terminates into Glacier Creek, which eventually flows into the Hoh River.

Walking Down the Hoh Glacier

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This is the second piece in the RPM Challenge. 10 songs or 35 minutes of recordings in the month of February. Onward down the valley.

Stumbling over some rocks on the way down

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You do have to watch your step or you get off your rhythm.

Long Walk Down the Glacier

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Downhill all the way.

Approaching the Bergschrund at Night

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Near the top of the mountain, it is important to avoid the crevasse caused by the separation of the glacier from the summit. Often hundreds of feet deep, it can be a formidable obstacle in the wind at night.

Dick Hogle's Liquid Light Show

Dick Hogle has set his light show to my Stick Shift Chevy Shake piece from 2005. He has recaptured the 1960's liquid light shows perfectly, and set it to some slippery microtonal changes. Here's the link.

Near the peak of Mt. Olympus

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The winds tend to howl at this elevation, especially when the storms blow in from the Pacific. Warm wet clouds this evening had a eerie sound as they blew up the glacier from the west. In this case, a descending utonality from 3:2 to 6:5 to 1:1 to 12:7 to 4:3 to 12:11 to 1:1. How do they do that?