Re: [cm] Re: new music: The Caves

> Nice piece, Jeff!

Thanks John!

> The plucked sounds seem to represent drops
> of water falling into underground pools, and the strings tell
> of that eerie dread one feels in a cave.

> I like the way the plucks occupy the space between pitched
> and not pitched. Well, on re-listening, I guess the pitch is
> pretty clear, but it seems diffused somehow - can you
> describe the makeup of this voice?

Off the top of my head I recall that it is structured
like a marimba but I have one of the (FM) modulation
stacks controllable & that stack also has some vibrato
in it that makes the odd wavering sound. Towards the
end of the piece, I reduce the amplitude of that
modulation stack and the voice morphs into the marimba
that is its base.

I'll look at it again later; it's a voice I made a few
years ago.

> Oh... my mistake; you describe them as struck, not plucked!

Only since the voice seems like a marimba to me but
both have similar attack envelopes. I guess the main
difference between the two would be as you say the
inharmonic partials in many typical struck instruments
(excepting clavichords, pianos and other struck
strings.. oh well that's another topic.)

> OK, and I'm vaguely hearing inharmonic partials in there,
> consistent with struck instruments.

Me too.

> You do something, though
> (tinker with the pitches during the (short) lifetime of the
> sound?) to make it sound like water drops.

That's the erratic pitch modulation.

> Hmmm... no, on
> listening again, I don't hear that, but it sure made me
> _imagine_ that I'd heard it.

I probably fooled you when I subtlely removed it at the
end.

> Caves are strange places. Have you been to Carlsbad Caverns?

Yes!

> Majestic and frightening, very intense feeling walking down a
> steep path into the bowels of the earth.

Nice yes but I thought overdeveloped with the
sidewalks, handrails, radio handsets and enormous
cafeteria at the bottom. In the same park nearby
they have small tours (for those able to make a
1/2 mile steep hike) to a nearby undeveloped smaller
cave that is really everything I would expect in a
cave -- many intricate beautiful and colorful
formations -- curtains, shields, christmas trees.
Some of the formations are quite unique and had yet
to be explained when I visited.

> Actually I can
> imagine playing your piece there, loud enough that people
> around can hear - I want to see their expressions!

!!

Thanks again!

---

OH! BY THE WAY -- to those of you having trouble
downloading, just wait an hour or so and try again.
geocities.com blocks accounts on an hourly basis
depending on whether downloads in that hour have
exceeded 3 gigabytes / (30 days * 24 hours) = 4.17
MB/hour. So only about four minutes of music total
worldwide can be downloaded per hour, unfortunately.

- Jeff

> I thought the contrast between the "celesty-sounding" things
> and the strings worked well...
>
> JP

Thanks Joe!

- J

> Just wanted to pop in over here and thank you for the
> fantabulous
> music!!!

Thanks Jacky!

> Glad to know some good folk who still make music instead of
> the (ab) normal mathematical hair splitting.

Yes a handful of composers do exist.

> I *LOVE* that Reperio Tuning Brother! SWEET! How do you do
> it?!!!

Thanks for the comments on Reperio which indeed is a
sweet and intriguing tuning but actually the caves
piece is in another tuning. I did not say what it is
because I am starting to become of the philosophy that
all thisn talk about what tuning is used and blah blah
blah is totally pointless and has no bearing or
relevance on the music but is instead an insidious
distraction that opens the door to focusng on numbers
and math instead of what matters -- the music.

> I got the piece and cycle played it about 50 times in a row,
> I was so starved from some of them good ole Jeff Scott
> Micreetones!

> Yeee Haaa! Ummm ummm goood.

> Keep'em coming!

I'd like to. I do get discouraged sometimes I must
admit. So many thanks to all the words of encouragement
and feedback.

- Jeff