new piece on-line

8 Terrains
- --------

2 saxes, 2 e. guitars, 2 kybrds, bass, computer (MAX/MSP)

http://music.columbia.edu/chris/sounds/terrains.mp3

Technically the piece is in 48-tone ET (i.e. 8th tones). I worked
with the harmonies on the OpenMusic software from IRCAM. This is
normally used for manipulation of spectrally-derived harmonies (as in
Tristan Murail's and many other European's music), but I derived these
particular harmonies, intuitively / by ear.

A lot of the piece is improvisation, in rhtymically constrained
"bursts" of activity. Through all of that, you can hear a succession of 8
rich chords. The parts are marked to the 1/8-tone of accuracy, but I
instruct the players to play this as accurately as possible depending on
how fast and what type of material they're playing at a given moment.

There is a computer part in the background, spinning out
long-tones that belong to the harmonies. These are, of course, in correct
tuning. Sadly, you can't really hear them until the "computer climax"
about 3/5 through the piece, when you'll hear a very pretty (I hope) chord
"overtake" the texture.

So it's a little messy, performance/recording wise, but I think by
the end it proves fairly exciting and worthwhile. I plan to re-record the
work in a cleaner more controlled fashion, to better capture the
rapid-fire alternation between improvised and composed materials.

Enjoy.

CB

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Christopher Bailey

/makemicromusic/topicId_3965.html#3965

<cb202@c...> wrote:
>
>
> 8 Terrains
> - --------
>
> 2 saxes, 2 e. guitars, 2 kybrds, bass, computer (MAX/MSP)
>
> http://music.columbia.edu/chris/sounds/terrains.mp3
>
> Technically the piece is in 48-tone ET (i.e. 8th tones). I
worked
> with the harmonies on the OpenMusic software from IRCAM. This is
> normally used for manipulation of spectrally-derived harmonies (as
in
> Tristan Murail's and many other European's music), but I derived
these
> particular harmonies, intuitively / by ear.
>
> A lot of the piece is improvisation, in rhtymically
constrained
> "bursts" of activity. Through all of that, you can hear a
succession of 8
> rich chords. The parts are marked to the 1/8-tone of accuracy, but
I
> instruct the players to play this as accurately as possible
depending on
> how fast and what type of material they're playing at a given
moment.
>
> There is a computer part in the background, spinning out
> long-tones that belong to the harmonies. These are, of course, in
correct
> tuning. Sadly, you can't really hear them until the "computer
climax"
> about 3/5 through the piece, when you'll hear a very pretty (I
hope) chord
> "overtake" the texture.
>
> So it's a little messy, performance/recording wise, but I
think by
> the end it proves fairly exciting and worthwhile. I plan to re-
record the
> work in a cleaner more controlled fashion, to better capture the
> rapid-fire alternation between improvised and composed materials.
>
>
> Enjoy.
>
> CB

***Hi Chris,

I posted a bit about this on the "biggie" list, but actually it
should be over *here* since this is where we "walk the walk" rather
than "talk the talk..."

J. Pehrson