A cover song of sorts: "La Volga"

This is part of my "soundtrack" project. It's an arrangement of an old Russian tune. Like just about everything I've written, it's 72-et.

http://www.last.fm/music/Danny+Wier/_/La+Volga

And the obligatory Wikipedia article about the traditional song, and the Ilya Repin painting that inspired it.:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_the_Volga_Boatmen

It's something simpler than what I've been writing recently. I reworked it to make it sound even more melancholy, something like the so-called "holy minimalism" of G�recki's Third, or certain parts of Glass' soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi. I added a bass ostinato, a four-note descending _jins al-Bayati_, essentially, tuned in 72-edo: {0, 9, 19, 30}. I "discovered" an interesting chord in this, a type of diminished triad: Ed G Bb = {1/1, 11/9, 22/15} = 45:55:66.

It's scored for clarinet, horn x2, trombone, tuba, timpani, violas, celli, contrabasses and a synth covering notes as low as D-1 (~ 9.17 Hz). The forte section with clarinet and horns is in 12-et.

My new work-in-progress is in a much more cheery mood--it's salsa-rock basically. Trombones and "slide trumpets", and possibly fretless guitar and bass, will be handling the microtonal work. I might enter it in the UnTwelve competition, if I'm able to finish it in time...

~D. http://ludwigvan-tx.livejournal.com

I wrote:

> It's scored for clarinet, horn x2, trombone, tuba, timpani, violas,
> celli, contrabasses and a synth covering notes as low as D-1 (~ 9.17
> Hz). The forte section with clarinet and horns is in 12-et.

Left out a few instruments: bassoon and tuba x2 (tenor/euphonium and bass). ~D.

This is really really good. Very dramatic orchestration and arrangement.

Thanks for sharing!

Chris

On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 4:27 PM, Danny Wier <dawiertx@...> wrote:

>
>
> This is part of my "soundtrack" project. It's an arrangement of an old
> Russian tune. Like just about everything I've written, it's 72-et.
>
> http://www.last.fm/music/Danny+Wier/_/La+Volga
>
> And the obligatory Wikipedia article about the traditional song, and the
> Ilya Repin painting that inspired it.:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_the_Volga_Boatmen
>
> It's something simpler than what I've been writing recently. I reworked
> it to make it sound even more melancholy, something like the so-called
> "holy minimalism" of Górecki's Third, or certain parts of Glass'
> soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi. I added a bass ostinato, a four-note
> descending _jins al-Bayati_, essentially, tuned in 72-edo: {0, 9, 19,
> 30}. I "discovered" an interesting chord in this, a type of diminished
> triad: Ed G Bb = {1/1, 11/9, 22/15} = 45:55:66.
>
> It's scored for clarinet, horn x2, trombone, tuba, timpani, violas,
> celli, contrabasses and a synth covering notes as low as D-1 (~ 9.17
> Hz). The forte section with clarinet and horns is in 12-et.
>
> My new work-in-progress is in a much more cheery mood--it's salsa-rock
> basically. Trombones and "slide trumpets", and possibly fretless guitar
> and bass, will be handling the microtonal work. I might enter it in the
> UnTwelve competition, if I'm able to finish it in time...
>
> ~D. http://ludwigvan-tx.livejournal.com
>
>
>

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