Slow Dance #2

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

There was an earlier Slow Dance that took two otonality triads and slid them in opposite directions, so I thought it would be useful to do the same with two utonality triads. The original took a chord of 8:10:12 and slid it up to 9:11:14, while sliding a 9:11:14 triad down to 8:10:12. This one takes the 12:(12,10,8) up to 12:(11,9,14) and visa versa. There is a point in the middle of the slide when a minor chord can be heard, midway between the two. The utonality triads are much less settled than the otonality ones.

Rafting the Middle Fork - Take 11

Listen here:

Subscribe here:
It sometimes takes the guys a few tries before they get it right. And no, there really isn't a middle fork of the Hoh River in Washington. There's a south fork, but that doesn't sound right for a song title.

Rafting the Middle Fork

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

This piece rapidly changes pace from fast to slow, alternative the finger piano, marmiba, and slide vibraphone parts from sixteenth notes to eighth notes, with several 3 against 4 against 6 against 8 rhythms. The tempo also shifts, very gradually, from one tempo to another, by about 30% up and down. It ends about 60% slower than it started.

The pitch also shifts. It starts in the key of A minor, but drops by one 53-TET step every 30-60 seconds. The shifts are difficult to perceive. It's as if you suddenly notice that you are not where you thought you were. Over the course of the ten minutes the tonality drops by 22 steps, to a fourth below A, ending at E.

The tonality is the utonality to the 15 limit. In ratios, they are 24/(16,20,24,14,15,18).

The vibraphone, marimba, and finger pianos play repetitive rhythmic patterns,
while the french horn, clarinet, and oboe play a descending melody, answered by a inverse melody later in the piece.

The overall theme is of descending a river, with fast and slow sections, some complex, some serene, but always moving downhill.

Sketch for Rafting the Middle Fork

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

I've added a marimba part and modified the vibraphone a bit. More to come later.

Sketch for "Rafting"

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Just finger piano and vibraphone for now.

The Music of the Hoh River Valley - MP3 versions

I finished the CD for the RPM challenge on Sunday. Here are the pieces all in one place for those interested, in MP3 format. Liner notes here.

1. Approaching the Bergschrund at Night
2. Walking Down Blue Glacier
3. At the Terminus of the Blue
4. The Rocks of Glacier Creek
5. Elk Lake Dancing
6. Slow Dance

The Music of the Hoh River Valley - FLAC versions

I finished the CD for the RPM challenge on Sunday. Here are the pieces all in one place for those interested, in FLAC format. I'll only be able to keep these up for a short while because of the size. Liner notes here.

1. Approaching the Bergschrund at Night
2. Walking Down Blue Glacier
3. At the Terminus of the Blue
4. The Rocks of Glacier Creek
5. Elk Lake Dancing
6. Slow Dance
7. Elk Lake Dancing - take two

All the FLAC's can be downloaded by right mouse clicking and choosing "save as", or some such browser specific command. They all end in the extension of .FLA, so they may need to be renamed as .FLAC once they are downloaded.

Elk Lake Dancing

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

This is the final piece I was able to finish for the RPM Challenge. Written for the same instruments as the others: clarinet, oboe, cello, finger piano, harp, marimba, vibraphone. I would have liked to include some Elk calls, but I ran out of time. The harmony is based on the otonolity to the 15 limit, modulating down a scale derived from the utonality series. It's the same set of changes as my 2002 piece Mirror Walk.

16:9
8:5
16:11
4:3
8:7
1:1
16:9

This is a descending scale, but the voicings from one chord to the next are done so that it sounds like it's going up, when it actually goes down.

The rhythm is based on dividing 30 beats into one of two general ways: either 5 6 beat quarter notes or 7 4 beat quarter notes and a 2 beat eighth note, with the latter quarter notes slower than the former. 5 * 6 = 30 and 7 * 4 + 2 = 30. It's kind of like a 3 against 4, except the 3 has a 5:4 feel to it, and the 4 has a lopsided samba feel.