Cosmolyra jam

Hi all!

My old teacher Denny Genovese came through town recently, and
we had the good fortune to be able to spend a couple afternoons
together at my place (we also met up briefly with Kurt Bigler
and Scot Gresham-Lancaster in the East bay).

Denny brought with him a Cosmolyra* built by Ivor Darreg, I
believe, in 1976. He called it the "The Hobnailed Newel Post".
See Xenharmonic Bulletin No. 7 (reprinted in Xenharmonikon 5)
for details. Since Ivor's death, the instrument has lived in
Maine, Florida, California, and Washington. Ivor basically
made it with free materials, so it is a wonder it still works
after 34 years!

Denny had just picked it up in Washington, and we tuned its
rusty strings for the first time in quite a while for a quick
jam session with my somewhat newer (1997) Cosmolyra (which
was in fact patterned after the Newel Post, when I was studying
with Denny in Florida).

Well, more like a 4 minute post-tuning doodle where we can
barely hear each other. But in the spirit of putting something
out there, here it is:

http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos1.mp3

http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos2.mp3

After all, there aren't that many other places to hear not one
but two multi-string extended JI slide guitars playing at the
same time. (Please note, the second cut has a crescendo in
the middle.)

The recording was made on my Marantz PMD620, which I love.
That is until my toddler grabbed it and started pushing buttons.
(I think it's him chewing apple on the first cut, sorry.)

Enjoy!

-Carl

* Erv Wilson suggested this name, spelled with a "K". But for
some reason I have always spelled it with "C"...

Enjoyed Carl!!

Do you have a picture of the instrument somewhere?

Chris

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 3:49 AM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:

>
>
> Hi all!
>
> My old teacher Denny Genovese came through town recently, and
> we had the good fortune to be able to spend a couple afternoons
> together at my place (we also met up briefly with Kurt Bigler
> and Scot Gresham-Lancaster in the East bay).
>
> Denny brought with him a Cosmolyra* built by Ivor Darreg, I
> believe, in 1976. He called it the "The Hobnailed Newel Post".
> See Xenharmonic Bulletin No. 7 (reprinted in Xenharmonikon 5)
> for details. Since Ivor's death, the instrument has lived in
> Maine, Florida, California, and Washington. Ivor basically
> made it with free materials, so it is a wonder it still works
> after 34 years!
>
> Denny had just picked it up in Washington, and we tuned its
> rusty strings for the first time in quite a while for a quick
> jam session with my somewhat newer (1997) Cosmolyra (which
> was in fact patterned after the Newel Post, when I was studying
> with Denny in Florida).
>
> Well, more like a 4 minute post-tuning doodle where we can
> barely hear each other. But in the spirit of putting something
> out there, here it is:
>
> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos1.mp3
>
> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos2.mp3
>
> After all, there aren't that many other places to hear not one
> but two multi-string extended JI slide guitars playing at the
> same time. (Please note, the second cut has a crescendo in
> the middle.)
>
> The recording was made on my Marantz PMD620, which I love.
> That is until my toddler grabbed it and started pushing buttons.
> (I think it's him chewing apple on the first cut, sorry.)
>
> Enjoy!
>
> -Carl
>
> * Erv Wilson suggested this name, spelled with a "K". But for
> some reason I have always spelled it with "C"...
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Carl,

I suggest you run your 2nd piece through Paul's Extreme Stretch.

It sounds very cool by the time you get 25% through it on the default settings.

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 3:49 AM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi all!
>
> My old teacher Denny Genovese came through town recently, and
> we had the good fortune to be able to spend a couple afternoons
> together at my place (we also met up briefly with Kurt Bigler
> and Scot Gresham-Lancaster in the East bay).
>
> Denny brought with him a Cosmolyra* built by Ivor Darreg, I
> believe, in 1976. He called it the "The Hobnailed Newel Post".

> Well, more like a 4 minute post-tuning doodle where we can
> barely hear each other. But in the spirit of putting something
> out there, here it is:
>
> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos1.mp3
>
> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos2.mp3
>

Here's two pictures of our setup:

http://lumma.org/temp/TunerSun.jpg

http://lumma.org/temp/TwoCosmos.jpg

We were both plugged in to my Roland Cube Street amp beneath
the table, where the Marantz and my son were also.
Great amp, though my son pierced the speaker cone several
times with a spare phone plug!

-Carl

At 03:49 AM 10/12/2010, you wrote:
>Enjoyed Carl!!
>
>Do you have a picture of the instrument somewhere?
>
>Chris
>
>On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 3:49 AM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Hi all!
>>
>> My old teacher Denny Genovese came through town recently, and
>> we had the good fortune to be able to spend a couple afternoons
>> together at my place (we also met up briefly with Kurt Bigler
>> and Scot Gresham-Lancaster in the East bay).
>>
>> Denny brought with him a Cosmolyra* built by Ivor Darreg, I
>> believe, in 1976. He called it the "The Hobnailed Newel Post".
>> See Xenharmonic Bulletin No. 7 (reprinted in Xenharmonikon 5)
>> for details. Since Ivor's death, the instrument has lived in
>> Maine, Florida, California, and Washington. Ivor basically
>> made it with free materials, so it is a wonder it still works
>> after 34 years!
>>
>> Denny had just picked it up in Washington, and we tuned its
>> rusty strings for the first time in quite a while for a quick
>> jam session with my somewhat newer (1997) Cosmolyra (which
>> was in fact patterned after the Newel Post, when I was studying
>> with Denny in Florida).
>>
>> Well, more like a 4 minute post-tuning doodle where we can
>> barely hear each other. But in the spirit of putting something
>> out there, here it is:
>>
>> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos1.mp3
>>
>> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos2.mp3
>>
>> After all, there aren't that many other places to hear not one
>> but two multi-string extended JI slide guitars playing at the
>> same time. (Please note, the second cut has a crescendo in
>> the middle.)
>>
>> The recording was made on my Marantz PMD620, which I love.
>> That is until my toddler grabbed it and started pushing buttons.
>> (I think it's him chewing apple on the first cut, sorry.)
>>
>> Enjoy!
>>
>> -Carl
>>
>> * Erv Wilson suggested this name, spelled with a "K". But for
>> some reason I have always spelled it with "C"...
>>
>

Hi Carl,

on Denny's instrument, the strings on the side are sympathetic?

I presume your instrument had those too - just can't see them from the
angle?

This instrument is a real good argument for me to invest in zither pins.

Thanks for the pics!!

Chris

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 1:43 PM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:

>
>
> Here's two pictures of our setup:
>
> http://lumma.org/temp/TunerSun.jpg
>
> http://lumma.org/temp/TwoCosmos.jpg
>
> We were both plugged in to my Roland Cube Street amp beneath
> the table, where the Marantz and my son were also.
> Great amp, though my son pierced the speaker cone several
> times with a spare phone plug!
>
> -Carl
>
>
> At 03:49 AM 10/12/2010, you wrote:
> >Enjoyed Carl!!
> >
> >Do you have a picture of the instrument somewhere?
> >
> >Chris
> >
> >On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 3:49 AM, Carl Lumma <carl@...<carl%40lumma.org>>
> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> Hi all!
> >>
> >> My old teacher Denny Genovese came through town recently, and
> >> we had the good fortune to be able to spend a couple afternoons
> >> together at my place (we also met up briefly with Kurt Bigler
> >> and Scot Gresham-Lancaster in the East bay).
> >>
> >> Denny brought with him a Cosmolyra* built by Ivor Darreg, I
> >> believe, in 1976. He called it the "The Hobnailed Newel Post".
> >> See Xenharmonic Bulletin No. 7 (reprinted in Xenharmonikon 5)
> >> for details. Since Ivor's death, the instrument has lived in
> >> Maine, Florida, California, and Washington. Ivor basically
> >> made it with free materials, so it is a wonder it still works
> >> after 34 years!
> >>
> >> Denny had just picked it up in Washington, and we tuned its
> >> rusty strings for the first time in quite a while for a quick
> >> jam session with my somewhat newer (1997) Cosmolyra (which
> >> was in fact patterned after the Newel Post, when I was studying
> >> with Denny in Florida).
> >>
> >> Well, more like a 4 minute post-tuning doodle where we can
> >> barely hear each other. But in the spirit of putting something
> >> out there, here it is:
> >>
> >> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos1.mp3
> >>
> >> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos2.mp3
> >>
> >> After all, there aren't that many other places to hear not one
> >> but two multi-string extended JI slide guitars playing at the
> >> same time. (Please note, the second cut has a crescendo in
> >> the middle.)
> >>
> >> The recording was made on my Marantz PMD620, which I love.
> >> That is until my toddler grabbed it and started pushing buttons.
> >> (I think it's him chewing apple on the first cut, sorry.)
> >>
> >> Enjoy!
> >>
> >> -Carl
> >>
> >> * Erv Wilson suggested this name, spelled with a "K". But for
> >> some reason I have always spelled it with "C"...
> >>
> >
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Chris,

I don't have the program, but you're welcome to run it
and post the results!

-Carl

At 04:02 AM 10/12/2010, you wrote:
>Hi Carl,
>
>I suggest you run your 2nd piece through Paul's Extreme Stretch.
>
>It sounds very cool by the time you get 25% through it on the default
>settings.
>
>On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 3:49 AM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi all!
>>
>> My old teacher Denny Genovese came through town recently, and
>> we had the good fortune to be able to spend a couple afternoons
>> together at my place (we also met up briefly with Kurt Bigler
>> and Scot Gresham-Lancaster in the East bay).
>>
>> Denny brought with him a Cosmolyra* built by Ivor Darreg, I
>> believe, in 1976. He called it the "The Hobnailed Newel Post".
>
>> Well, more like a 4 minute post-tuning doodle where we can
>> barely hear each other. But in the spirit of putting something
>> out there, here it is:
>>
>> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos1.mp3
>>
>> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos2.mp3
>>
>
>

Chris wrote:

>on Denny's instrument, the strings on the side are sympathetic?
>
>I presume your instrument had those too - just can't see them from the
>angle?

Mine has two sides, Denny's has four. Each side has an independent
set of strings with independent pickups! No sympathetic strings
are used.

>This instrument is a real good argument for me to invest in zither pins.

I used nickel-plated zither pins on mine. Ivor used piano pins,
and originally, piano wire (Denny replaced it with guitar strings).

>Thanks for the pics!!

Thanks for your interest! If only life were different and we
could have had one more day to actually play the things.

-Carl

Hi Carl,

Is the idea behind the additional sides is to have access to another tuning
system - or is it to increase range?

or both?

I wish I had talked (actually listened!!) to Denny more myself. As it was he
influenced me greatly. Music moves in him. I can imagine having the time you
did with him to jam and talk was excellent.

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 2:18 PM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:

>
>
> Chris wrote:
>
> >on Denny's instrument, the strings on the side are sympathetic?
> >
> >I presume your instrument had those too - just can't see them from the
> >angle?
>
> Mine has two sides, Denny's has four. Each side has an independent
> set of strings with independent pickups! No sympathetic strings
> are used.
>
>
> >This instrument is a real good argument for me to invest in zither pins.
>
> I used nickel-plated zither pins on mine. Ivor used piano pins,
> and originally, piano wire (Denny replaced it with guitar strings).
>
> >Thanks for the pics!!
>
> Thanks for your interest! If only life were different and we
> could have had one more day to actually play the things.
>
> -Carl
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

awesome looking contraption!

Sent from my iPad

On Oct 12, 2010, at 1:43 PM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:

> Here's two pictures of our setup:
>
> http://lumma.org/temp/TunerSun.jpg
>
> http://lumma.org/temp/TwoCosmos.jpg
>
> We were both plugged in to my Roland Cube Street amp beneath
> the table, where the Marantz and my son were also.
> Great amp, though my son pierced the speaker cone several
> times with a spare phone plug!
>
> -Carl
>
> At 03:49 AM 10/12/2010, you wrote:
> >Enjoyed Carl!!
> >
> >Do you have a picture of the instrument somewhere?
> >
> >Chris
> >
> >On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 3:49 AM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> Hi all!
> >>
> >> My old teacher Denny Genovese came through town recently, and
> >> we had the good fortune to be able to spend a couple afternoons
> >> together at my place (we also met up briefly with Kurt Bigler
> >> and Scot Gresham-Lancaster in the East bay).
> >>
> >> Denny brought with him a Cosmolyra* built by Ivor Darreg, I
> >> believe, in 1976. He called it the "The Hobnailed Newel Post".
> >> See Xenharmonic Bulletin No. 7 (reprinted in Xenharmonikon 5)
> >> for details. Since Ivor's death, the instrument has lived in
> >> Maine, Florida, California, and Washington. Ivor basically
> >> made it with free materials, so it is a wonder it still works
> >> after 34 years!
> >>
> >> Denny had just picked it up in Washington, and we tuned its
> >> rusty strings for the first time in quite a while for a quick
> >> jam session with my somewhat newer (1997) Cosmolyra (which
> >> was in fact patterned after the Newel Post, when I was studying
> >> with Denny in Florida).
> >>
> >> Well, more like a 4 minute post-tuning doodle where we can
> >> barely hear each other. But in the spirit of putting something
> >> out there, here it is:
> >>
> >> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos1.mp3
> >>
> >> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos2.mp3
> >>
> >> After all, there aren't that many other places to hear not one
> >> but two multi-string extended JI slide guitars playing at the
> >> same time. (Please note, the second cut has a crescendo in
> >> the middle.)
> >>
> >> The recording was made on my Marantz PMD620, which I love.
> >> That is until my toddler grabbed it and started pushing buttons.
> >> (I think it's him chewing apple on the first cut, sorry.)
> >>
> >> Enjoy!
> >>
> >> -Carl
> >>
> >> * Erv Wilson suggested this name, spelled with a "K". But for
> >> some reason I have always spelled it with "C"...
> >>
> >
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Chris,

>Is the idea behind the additional sides is to have access to another tuning
>system - or is it to increase range?
>
>or both?

Both.

>I wish I had talked (actually listened!!) to Denny more myself. As
>it was he influenced me greatly. Music moves in him. I can imagine
>having the time you did with him to jam and talk was excellent.

While he was here he gave me a DVD of his stuff -- I only had
cassettes, which I can't play anymore (and some of which were
stolen from me in Oakland in the late '90s). I'm going to do my
usual thing assembling them into an mp3 archive. I'll then ask
him if I can host them. His stuff was way ahead of its time.

Unfortunately most of his key ensemble players had just graduated
UFL and moved on before I arrived. We got one tremendous jam,
with Denny on drums, myself on retuned Baldwin organ, and Pat Pagano
on electric violin, giant hammer Dulimer, and Pro One.
Unfortunately, the only copy was stolen in Oakland. I had other
copies of some of the other stuff I did with Pat that isn't as good.
I may post it at some point though.

-Carl

Hi Carl,

I posted a 6 minute edit of the resulting 34 minute stretched cosmolyra jam
session.
Definitely feel free to post any of the following where you'd like.

The 6 megabyte file can be downloaded here:

http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=1656

Or - listened to online here:

http://notonlymusic.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=633&p=4033#p4033

I took the liberty of posting your introductory post and pictures to the
start of the thread here:

http://notonlymusic.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=633&start=0

I'm thinking I am hearing some JI "buzz" or "growl" in the stretched version
and I really like it. Reminds me of a distorted guitar w/o the distortion.

Chris

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 1:35 PM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:

>
>
> Hi Chris,
>
> I don't have the program, but you're welcome to run it
> and post the results!
>
> -Carl
>
>
> At 04:02 AM 10/12/2010, you wrote:
> >Hi Carl,
> >
> >I suggest you run your 2nd piece through Paul's Extreme Stretch.
> >
> >It sounds very cool by the time you get 25% through it on the default
> >settings.
> >
> >On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 3:49 AM, Carl Lumma <carl@...<carl%40lumma.org>>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> Hi all!
> >>
> >> My old teacher Denny Genovese came through town recently, and
> >> we had the good fortune to be able to spend a couple afternoons
> >> together at my place (we also met up briefly with Kurt Bigler
> >> and Scot Gresham-Lancaster in the East bay).
> >>
> >> Denny brought with him a Cosmolyra* built by Ivor Darreg, I
> >> believe, in 1976. He called it the "The Hobnailed Newel Post".
> >
> >> Well, more like a 4 minute post-tuning doodle where we can
> >> barely hear each other. But in the spirit of putting something
> >> out there, here it is:
> >>
> >> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos1.mp3
> >>
> >> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos2.mp3
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

That's pretty cool Chris, thanks. -Carl

At 09:04 AM 10/13/2010, you wrote:
>Hi Carl,
>
>I posted a 6 minute edit of the resulting 34 minute stretched cosmolyra jam
>session.
>Definitely feel free to post any of the following where you'd like.
>
>The 6 megabyte file can be downloaded here:
>
>http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=1656
>
>Or - listened to online here:
>
>http://notonlymusic.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=633&p=4033#p4033
>
>I took the liberty of posting your introductory post and pictures to the
>start of the thread here:
>
>http://notonlymusic.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=633&start=0
>
>
>I'm thinking I am hearing some JI "buzz" or "growl" in the stretched version
>and I really like it. Reminds me of a distorted guitar w/o the distortion.
>
>Chris
>
>On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 1:35 PM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Hi Chris,
>>
>> I don't have the program, but you're welcome to run it
>> and post the results!
>>
>> -Carl
>>
>>
>> At 04:02 AM 10/12/2010, you wrote:
>> >Hi Carl,
>> >
>> >I suggest you run your 2nd piece through Paul's Extreme Stretch.
>> >
>> >It sounds very cool by the time you get 25% through it on the default
>> >settings.
>> >
>> >On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 3:49 AM, Carl Lumma
><carl@...<carl%40lumma.org>>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Hi all!
>> >>
>> >> My old teacher Denny Genovese came through town recently, and
>> >> we had the good fortune to be able to spend a couple afternoons
>> >> together at my place (we also met up briefly with Kurt Bigler
>> >> and Scot Gresham-Lancaster in the East bay).
>> >>
>> >> Denny brought with him a Cosmolyra* built by Ivor Darreg, I
>> >> believe, in 1976. He called it the "The Hobnailed Newel Post".
>> >
>> >> Well, more like a 4 minute post-tuning doodle where we can
>> >> barely hear each other. But in the spirit of putting something
>> >> out there, here it is:
>> >>
>> >> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos1.mp3
>> >>
>> >> http://lumma.org/temp/Cosmos2.mp3
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>------------------------------------
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Chris Vaisvil <chrisvaisvil@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Carl,
>
> I posted a 6 minute edit of the resulting 34 minute stretched
> cosmolyra jam session.
> Definitely feel free to post any of the following where you'd like.
>
> The 6 megabyte file can be downloaded here:
>
> http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=1656
>
> Or - listened to online here:
>
> http://notonlymusic.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=633&p=4033#p4033
>

Sounds quite impressive - quite different from the original.
What exactly is Paul's extreme stretch?
--
Hans Straub

Hi Hans,

here is a link to the website for the program
http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/

chris

The author can explain better than I.

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 7:09 AM, hstraub64 <straub@...> wrote:

>
>
> Sounds quite impressive - quite different from the original.
> What exactly is Paul's extreme stretch?
> --
> Hans Straub
>
>
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]