Friday, July 17, 2009

Through Western Bog Laurel - take 11


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This is a version of the finished work. It is scored for flutes, marimba, vibe, finger piano, harp, balloon drums, and a percussion board with a contact microphone. The latter instrument includes several rocks, toothbrushes, and pieces of wood, glass, and rocks glued to the surface of a piece of sitka spruce. If you hear something that sounds like a monkey chant, it's probably the percussion board.

The intonation is 72-equal divisions of the octave (72-EDO) approximating the Partch tonality diamond to the 15 limit. There are many glissandi and trills employed. The marimba and vibe are given many opportunities to trill and slide around their pitches. The triad is the basic melodic element, either 4:5:6 or 7:9:11 or their inversions in the major scale, and comparable chords in the sub-minor and minor modes.

The piece starts out in B 16/9, with a scale based on the overtone series. As shown on the chart below, it modulates around the tonality diamond from there. Click on the chart for a larger version. The yellow colored blocks are the B 16/9 major scale. The subminor D 12/11 is in orange, the subminor G 3/2 is in pink, the C 1/1 minor is green, and the F 4/3 major is in blue. I use glissandi to slide from one chord to another.

As with all my works, there is a great deal of indeterminacy. Each instrument has many choices to make, subject to constraints about repeatability and change. Imagine a band improvising from a set of approved riffs.

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