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 tuning@y..., Christopher Bailey <cb202@c...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_41386.html#41386

>
> 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

***My guess is this piece is considerably cooler than the link, which
appears to be broken...

J. Pehrson

--- In tuning@y..., Christopher Bailey <cb202@c...> wrote:

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

Correct is

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

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Christopher Bailey <cb202@c...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_41386.html#41386

>
> 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!

Actually, I believe this is a MakeMicroMusic topic, since we try not
to talk about "real music" on this forum.... :)

But, anyway, wow... this piece is sure different from the other stuff
of yours that I've heard. This kind of sounds like Ornette Coleman,
and your other stuff sounded like alternately tuned Feldman.

That's a big jump! No problem with that, just mentioning it.

Yes, I couldn't hear the electronics at all until the big climax.
Maybe the nature of the piece would have been somewhat different if
that part had been louder, dunno.

Anyway, thanks for the post. Probably any more discussion of this
kind should be on the Szanto MMM list.

best,

Joe Pehrson