Elk Lake Dancing

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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.