Jeffrey Dahmer Cooks at 11edo

online listen
http://chrisvaisvil.com/?p=557

direct download
http://micro.soonlabel.com/11-ET/daily201110-gpo-jeffery-dahmer-cooks.mp3

11 notes per octave (11 edo) has been a tuning that has generated a lot of music later. Not wanting to be left out I decided to take some time to compose a piece in 11 edo using Garritan Personal Orchestra. As a subject matter suitable for the strident music that my muse handed me I chose the serial killer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer">Jeffrey Dahmer</a>, a very scary person indeed who somehow got his own PBS cooking show.

Scored for symphonic organ, string ensemble, french horns, trombones, and orchestral percussion.

Chris,

I was surprised by how much I liked this. Spooky, yes, but a fair amount
of it was pretty consonant, and I thought the pizzicato strings (if
that's what you were using) fit really nicely into the piece -- with no
irony in "nicely".

How did you decide on chord progressions and the like? Did you tune your
keyboard and then noodle around to find something you liked, or did you
have some theoretical basis for what you did? Also, did you use all the
notes in the scale, or did you focus on a quasi-diatonic subset?

Thanks,
Jake

> online listen
> http://chrisvaisvil.com/?p=557
>
> direct download
> http://micro.soonlabel.com/11-ET/daily201110-gpo-jeffery-dahmer-cooks.mp3
>
> 11 notes per octave (11 edo) has been a tuning that has generated a
> lot of music later. Not wanting to be left out I decided to take some
> time to compose a piece in 11 edo using Garritan Personal Orchestra.
> As a subject matter suitable for the strident music that my muse
> handed me I chose the serial killer <a
> href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer">Jeffrey Dahmer</a>,
> a very scary person indeed who somehow got his own PBS cooking show.
>
> Scored for symphonic organ, string ensemble, french horns, trombones,
> and orchestral percussion.
>

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

Hi Jake, I'm glad you enjoyed the piece, let me try to answer your questions.

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 10:37 AM, Jake Freivald <jdfreivald@...> wrote:

How did you decide on chord progressions and the like? Did you tune your
keyboard and then noodle around to find something you liked, or did you
have some theoretical basis for what you did?

Well, having played in 11 edo in Urbana last Saturday at Jacob and
Andrew's microtonal class class I knew I liked the sound of the minor
6th, and the octave is of course a given. What I played with today was
what worked melodically and what I found was that the whole tone scale
as played on a "rregular" keyboard more or less worked.

Prior to the competition I decided on the instrumentation - organ,
pizz. and arco strings, brass, and percussion. There is a core here of
string, brass, and percussion I've been using a lot.
I played an organ (a combined 5 organs) section on my midi controller
- but I decided I didn't like that and deleted it.

Then I wrote the opening percussion measure and then the 4 whole note
chords for organ. The placement of the organ notes were a combination
of what I heard in my mind and what the instrument sounded and making
the appropriate adjustments. The melody came later after I felt the
organ was too sparse. The opening arco string chord is simply the last
organ chord held for 4 measures. The brass melody here was again
written as an approximation of what I heard and then adjusted to what
I liked. Then I wrote the pizz. strings part using a cut n paste and
adding to what I had to build complexity. About this time I cheated
and imported a midi percussion loop for the orchestral percussion
which I subsequently modified and used in various forms in the score.

Now at this juncture I am hearing additions (such as more brass) to
the music that exists and am working on extending it. At 1:40 I felt
the need for a break and wrote one. By 2:04 the exit to the piece is
pretty apparent - I combine a number of motives from the other
instruments in the percussion and then take that lock, stock, and
barrel and plop that into the pizz. strings.

Is this type of information you are looking for?

The short of it is - I'm following what I hear much more than any
theoretical plan. Depending on the person I guess that could be seen
as good or bad. I'm trying to put down in the score what I hear in my
head but I don't hear many specifics, I just feel - increase tension,
decrease tension, add brass, change in texture needed - etc.

=> Jake
Also, did you use all the
notes in the scale, or did you focus on a quasi-diatonic subset?

I'm pretty sure if you examined this in detail you'd find I mostly use
a subset - but strayed from it. It is how I write in 12 equal as well.
However, trying to analyze a score that looks like 12 that is actually
in 11 - or any other non-12 tuning - is a mind bending experience for
me so I can't say for sure.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "christopherv" <chrisvaisvil@...> wrote:

>As a subject matter suitable for the strident music that my muse handed me I chose the serial killer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer">Jeffrey Dahmer</a>, a very scary person indeed who somehow got his own PBS cooking show.

Woo, scary stuff! I see 11edo could be used in a movie soundtrack about orcs, Klingons, or serial killers. But seeing the mess Wisconsin is in now, I can't help but wonder how things would have been different if Dahmer had eaten Scott Walker, whom they've been promoting with ads on this page. He was at the right age.

Dahmer might have gotten a bad case of indigestion....

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 12:06 PM, genewardsmith
<genewardsmith@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "christopherv" <chrisvaisvil@...> wrote:
>
> >As a subject matter suitable for the strident music that my muse handed me I chose the serial killer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer">Jeffrey Dahmer</a>, a very scary person indeed who somehow got his own PBS cooking show.
>
> Woo, scary stuff! I see 11edo could be used in a movie soundtrack about orcs, Klingons, or serial killers. But seeing the mess Wisconsin is in now, I can't help but wonder how things would have been different if Dahmer had eaten Scott Walker, whom they've been promoting with ads on this page. He was at the right age.

Finally got a chance to listen to this. Absolutely incredible. This is the best piece of 11-EDO music I have ever heard, and I think one of your best! Great work, Chris. I'm normally against the whole "digital orchestra" kind of approach but in this case I feel like you really made it work.

Tell me, what is your impression of the tuning now that you've composed in it?

-Igs

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "christopherv" <chrisvaisvil@...> wrote:
>
> online listen
> http://chrisvaisvil.com/?p=557
>
> direct download
> http://micro.soonlabel.com/11-ET/daily201110-gpo-jeffery-dahmer-cooks.mp3
>
> 11 notes per octave (11 edo) has been a tuning that has generated a lot of music later. Not wanting to be left out I decided to take some time to compose a piece in 11 edo using Garritan Personal Orchestra. As a subject matter suitable for the strident music that my muse handed me I chose the serial killer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer">Jeffrey Dahmer</a>, a very scary person indeed who somehow got his own PBS cooking show.
>
>
> Scored for symphonic organ, string ensemble, french horns, trombones, and orchestral percussion.
>

> Is this type of information you are looking for?

Yes, precisely what I was looking for, and more of it than I expected.
Thanks very much for the complete run-down! It makes me want to try the
scale for myself... :)

Regards,
Jake

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

Indeed, that's a good 'un. -C.

At 08:24 PM 3/10/2011, you wrote:
>Finally got a chance to listen to this. Absolutely incredible. This
>is the best piece of 11-EDO music I have ever heard, and I think one
>of your best! Great work, Chris. I'm normally against the whole
>"digital orchestra" kind of approach but in this case I feel like you
>really made it work.
>
>Tell me, what is your impression of the tuning now that you've
>composed in it?
>
>-Igs
>
>--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "christopherv" <chrisvaisvil@...> wrote:
>>
>> online listen
>> http://chrisvaisvil.com/?p=557
>>
>> direct download
>> http://micro.soonlabel.com/11-ET/daily201110-gpo-jeffery-dahmer-cooks.mp3
>>

Let me echo the words of others: Nice one, Chris!

It felt very much like a soundtrack to an "inner movie" to me, was that
intended?

I'm shamefully behind on listening, having only heard George's 11-edo piece
a couple of days ago. I promise to get to the other 2 you've been plugging
today and comment... :)

AKJ

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 9:02 AM, christopherv <chrisvaisvil@...>wrote:

> online listen
> http://chrisvaisvil.com/?p=557
>
> direct download
> http://micro.soonlabel.com/11-ET/daily201110-gpo-jeffery-dahmer-cooks.mp3
>
> 11 notes per octave (11 edo) has been a tuning that has generated a lot of
> music later. Not wanting to be left out I decided to take some time to
> compose a piece in 11 edo using Garritan Personal Orchestra. As a subject
> matter suitable for the strident music that my muse handed me I chose the
> serial killer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer">Jeffrey
> Dahmer</a>, a very scary person indeed who somehow got his own PBS cooking
> show.
>
>
> Scored for symphonic organ, string ensemble, french horns, trombones, and
> orchestral percussion.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

--
Aaron Krister Johnson
http://www.akjmusic.com
http://www.untwelve.org

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

Hi Igs,

Thank you for the listen and comment! My impression, with the
exception of Kligon relationships, writing a love ballad in 11 edo
would be quite a challenge.

Chris

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 11:24 PM, cityoftheasleep
<igliashon@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> Finally got a chance to listen to this. Absolutely incredible. This is the best piece of 11-EDO music I have ever heard, and I think one of your best! Great work, Chris. I'm normally against the whole "digital orchestra" kind of approach but in this case I feel like you really made it work.
>
> Tell me, what is your impression of the tuning now that you've composed in it?
>
> -Igs
>

I am glad you liked the information. Open ModPlug Tracker allows you
to play (some) microtonal music from your computer keyboard and is
free.

You may want to investigate that.

The latest version is here:

http://forum.openmpt.org/index.php?topic=3701.0

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 11:27 PM, Jake Freivald <jdfreivald@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Is this type of information you are looking for?
>
> Yes, precisely what I was looking for, and more of it than I expected.
> Thanks very much for the complete run-down! It makes me want to try the
> scale for myself... :)
>
> Regards,
> Jake
>

Thanks for the listen and comment Carl!

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 2:56 AM, Carl Lumma <carl@...> wrote:

>
>
> Indeed, that's a good 'un. -C.
>
>
> At 08:24 PM 3/10/2011, you wrote:
> >Finally got a chance to listen to this. Absolutely incredible. This
> >is the best piece of 11-EDO music I have ever heard, and I think one
>

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

Thank you for the listen and comment Aaron. I didn't have an intentional
tonepoem idea with this. So any internal movie you have is probably the
result of the the juxtaposition of the title (which was chosen after the
piece was complete with several working titles during composition) with the
strident nature of the music. Since I have mild synesthesia my internal
visuals are about as abstract as the music itself.

Chris

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 9:28 AM, Aaron Krister Johnson
<aaron@...>wrote:

>
>
> Let me echo the words of others: Nice one, Chris!
>
> It felt very much like a soundtrack to an "inner movie" to me, was that
> intended?
>
> I'm shamefully behind on listening, having only heard George's 11-edo piece
> a couple of days ago. I promise to get to the other 2 you've been plugging
> today and comment... :)
>
> AKJ
>
>

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