Serenade for Alto Flute #10

Here's a piece I created from a scale I used to play on a 12-note finger piano.

1. 7:7
2. 8:7
3. 9:7
4. 10:7
5. 21:14
6. 12:7
7. 27:14
1. 28:14

Link to the music: http://ripnread.com/listen/drum4a-c-t10.mp3
More information on the instruments, the tuning, and the structure here:
http://bumpermusic.blogspot.com/2012/02/serenade-for-alto-flute-10.html

Prent Rodgers

love it.

--- On Mon, 2/20/12, prentrodgers <prentrodgers@...> wrote:

From: prentrodgers <prentrodgers@...>
Subject: [MMM] Serenade for Alto Flute #10
To: MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, February 20, 2012, 3:38 PM

Here's a piece I created from a scale I used to play on a 12-note finger piano.

1. 7:7

2. 8:7

3. 9:7

4. 10:7

5. 21:14

6. 12:7

7. 27:14

1. 28:14

Link to the music: http://ripnread.com/listen/drum4a-c-t10.mp3

More information on the instruments, the tuning, and the structure here:

http://bumpermusic.blogspot.com/2012/02/serenade-for-alto-flute-10.html

Prent Rodgers

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

I enjoyed this piece Prent - nicely peaceful and relaxed.

I will be astonished if you are going to tell me the music was generative
for this as well.

Chris

On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 3:38 PM, prentrodgers <prentrodgers@comcast.net>wrote:

> **
>
>
> Here's a piece I created from a scale I used to play on a 12-note finger
> piano.
>
> 1. 7:7
> 2. 8:7
> 3. 9:7
> 4. 10:7
> 5. 21:14
> 6. 12:7
> 7. 27:14
> 1. 28:14
>
> Link to the music: http://ripnread.com/listen/drum4a-c-t10.mp3
> More information on the instruments, the tuning, and the structure here:
> http://bumpermusic.blogspot.com/2012/02/serenade-for-alto-flute-10.html
>
> Prent Rodgers
>
>
>

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

Prent,

I'm totally impressed. Great work. I tend to think I don't like 7-limit
harmony that much, and I often find the 9/7 major third to be too sharp for
my taste, but this all came together very nicely.

Thanks,
Jake

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

Dear Prent,

This is nice.  I know that it is a Serenade for Alto Flute, but the background makes me think of Hawaiian music sort of like pedal steel guitar.  Very cool! Loved it!

Peace,

Mike

--- On Mon, 2/20/12, prentrodgers <prentrodgers@...> wrote:

From: prentrodgers <prentrodgers@...>
Subject: [MMM] Serenade for Alto Flute #10
To: MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, February 20, 2012, 3:38 PM

Here's a piece I created from a scale I used to play on a 12-note finger piano.

1. 7:7

2. 8:7

3. 9:7

4. 10:7

5. 21:14

6. 12:7

7. 27:14

1. 28:14

Link to the music: http://ripnread.com/listen/drum4a-c-t10.mp3

More information on the instruments, the tuning, and the structure here:

http://bumpermusic.blogspot.com/2012/02/serenade-for-alto-flute-10.html

Prent Rodgers

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

Chris,
Thanks for listening. All my pieces use a kind of generative technique. That doesn't mean there aren't loads of constraints. But each instrument has to make a choice about what it will play next from a set of possible parts. And that choice is different each time through the piece, subject to a set of randomization algorithms. For example, the melody and bridge are made up of chunks of 24 sixteenth note parts, collected into five chunks of 120 beats.

Here's how it's coded. To play the first part of the melody I put the following in the preprocessor:

&all-120-a01.

That refers to this macro:

.all-120-a01 &vel.d120r0 &fin1-120-a*. &flu1-120-a01. &obo1-120-a*. &str1-120-a*. &str2-120-a01. &str3-120-a01. &bdr1-120-a*. &bdr2-120-a*. &bdr3-120-a*. &bdr4-120-a*. &bdr5-120-a*.

The &flu1-12-a01. macro refers to this code, where the specific 24 beat chucks are called:

.flu1-120-a01 &flu1-24-a01. &flu1-24-a02. &flu1-24-a03. &flu1-24-a04. &flu1-24-a05.

And each of those chunks has a definition earlier in the piece. Here's one:

.flu1-24-a01 &flu1.&mel1-24-a01*.

Notice that &mel1-24-a01*. ends in an asterisk. That means he has to choose from several alternatives, defined with a few choices:

.mel1-24-a01a d12r0 &mel1-ran.d6h7&pre1-a5. &preu-5-6.
.mel1-24-a01b d12r0 &mel1-ran.d9h10&pre1-a5. d3h4&preu-5-6.
.mel1-24-a01c d12r0 &mel1-ran.d9h10&pre1-a5. d3h24&preu-5-6.e14&trl9:8.

At run time, when &all-120-a01. is called, he resolves, and his components resolve, until he gets to the three choices for the melody, &mel1-24-a01a, a01b, or a01c. They are all similar, but not identical. The macros &pre1-a5 and &preu-5-6 are the notes. a5 is the 5th degree of the scale and 5-6 is the number of steps of the 72 EDO up from the 5th to the 6th. This form of notation allows for simple modulation, not used in this piece. d6 is the duration, 6 beats out of the 24 sixteenth notes in the 24 beat chunk. h7 is to hold the note for 7 beats, creating legato. &mel1-ran tells him to check with the randomizer and maybe don't play this time, or maybe play. r0 says silence. Note the third choice: a trill on the second note. If it chooses the a01c, it trills for three sixteenth notes. So you may hear the first part of the melody as two six sixteenth notes or one with 9 sixteenth notes and one with 3, and it might trill. But the melody is still recognizable. The long strings play a similar melody, but they have a few more choices that involve tremolos:

.trem3a v-1d1s-1 v-1d1s-1 d1s-1
.trem3b v+1d3
.trem6a v-1d1s-1 v-1d1s-1 v-1d1s-1 v-1d1s-1 d1s-1 d1s-1
.trem6b v+1d6
.trem6c &trem3*. &trem3*.
.trem9a v-1d1s-1 v-1d1s-1 v-1d1s-1 v-1d1s-1 d1s-1 d1s-1 d1s-1 d1s-1 d1s-1
.trem9b &trem3*. &trem6*.
.trem9c &trem6*. &trem3*.
.trem9d v+1d9
.mel1-24-b01a d12r0 &mel1-ran.v-10h7&pre1-a5.&trem6*. &preu-5-6.&trem6*.
.mel1-24-b01b d12r0 &mel1-ran.v-10h7&pre1-a5.&trem9*. &preu-5-6.&trem3*.
.mel1-24-b01c &mel1-24-a01*.

The guitar can chose to play a note several times or not. &trem6 can resolve to a single note (.trem6b v+1d6) or into two sets of 3 (.trem6c &trem3*. &trem3*.). trem3* resolves into either a single note (trem3b v+1d3) or three very fast sixteenth notes (trem3a v-1d1s-1 v-1s-1 d1s-1). The s variable is spatial, where it sits in the stereo field. It's what makes the zither seems to spin from one side of the stereo image to the other as it plays.

You could call the form generative, but it's really much more constrained than that word traditionally means. In the variation section, each instrument chooses from 15-20 different elements. In the melody section, each chooses from 2-3, and those 2-3 are very similar. In the variation section the choices are very different, so it's much more random. Sometimes I constrain the randomness to try to chose the same thing repeatedly, and sometimes to avoid picking the same one again. And sometimes it is told to step through the choices in sequence.

Prent Rodgers

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Chris Vaisvil <chrisvaisvil@...> wrote:
>
> I enjoyed this piece Prent - nicely peaceful and relaxed.
>
> I will be astonished if you are going to tell me the music was generative
> for this as well.
>
> Chris
>
> On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 3:38 PM, prentrodgers <prentrodgers@...>wrote:
>
> > **
> >
> >
> > Here's a piece I created from a scale I used to play on a 12-note finger
> > piano.
> >
> > 1. 7:7
> > 2. 8:7
> > 3. 9:7
> > 4. 10:7
> > 5. 21:14
> > 6. 12:7
> > 7. 27:14
> > 1. 28:14
> >
> > Link to the music: http://ripnread.com/listen/drum4a-c-t10.mp3
> > More information on the instruments, the tuning, and the structure here:
> > http://bumpermusic.blogspot.com/2012/02/serenade-for-alto-flute-10.html
> >
> > Prent Rodgers
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>