The Lyre of Ur

Hello,

I have put a new piece online called "The Lyre of Ur":

http://www.mctague.org/carl/music/computer/pieces/lyre

From the point of view of alternate tunings, "Lyre" is much more
conventional than the last piece I posted to this list, "Ripples
Through Pitch Space"
(http://www.mctague.org/carl/music/computer/pieces/ripples); "Lyre" is
tuned in conventional diatonic Just Intonation.

The more novel aspect of "Lyre" is that I composed it with the idea of
realizing music with a large-scale sense of direction by explicitly
constructing hierarchical structures mimicking those elicited by
Schenker. To compose each movement, I first constructed a
hierarchical structure representing a melodic fragment, and then
embedded that structure within itself. The resulting movements might
therefore be called weakly self-similar. (A truly self-similar
movement would result only if this embedding process were carried out
infinitely many times.)

So in each movement, listen for a single melodic fragment to be
repeated at diatonic transpositions and tempi that outline a
large-scale instance of the very same fragment. Notice, too, how the
perception of that repeated fragment evolves: at higher tempi it
begins to resemble compound melody. My favorite parts of the piece
are the second and last movements, especially the ascent to the last
movements climax beginning around 1:26, and the following final
descent.

Sincerely,
Carl McTague

>I have put a new piece online called "The Lyre of Ur":
>
> http://www.mctague.org/carl/music/computer/pieces/lyre

I particularly like "lament". The way the energy builds
is rather nice.

>The more novel aspect of "Lyre" is that I composed it with the idea of
>realizing music with a large-scale sense of direction by explicitly
>constructing hierarchical structures mimicking those elicited by
>Schenker. To compose each movement, I first constructed a
>hierarchical structure representing a melodic fragment, and then
>embedded that structure within itself. The resulting movements might
>therefore be called weakly self-similar. (A truly self-similar
>movement would result only if this embedding process were carried out
>infinitely many times.)

That's cool.

>So in each movement, listen for a single melodic fragment to be
>repeated at diatonic transpositions and tempi that outline a
>large-scale instance of the very same fragment. Notice, too, how the
>perception of that repeated fragment evolves: at higher tempi it
>begins to resemble compound melody. My favorite parts of the piece
>are the second and last movements, especially the ascent to the last
>movements climax beginning around 1:26, and the following final
>descent.

Yup.

-Carl