Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup tuning Re: David Hykes review

"John F. Sprague" wrote:

> The program started slightly after 6:30 and ran until about 8:00, with brief interruptions between pieces, not long enough to call intermissions. It started with "Spectral Path", a mostly vocal solo with some percussion accompaniment towards the end, followed by

Since I didn't get around to writing a review, I'll just chime in.

That was David singing solo. He's developed the harmonic
chant style to such an advanced degree.

> "Wave Tidings", a vocal duet,

joined by Tim Hill.

> and then " Rainbow Dance" for four musicians, then "Deserted Temple" with voices and instruments, and ending with one of the seven movements of
> "The Rainbow Fields", a "movement in Mode Three" (whatever that is). This latter was a world premiere.

The last piece was a vocal group with tabla and
another percussionist playing a double headed drum.
Nice groove with a cloud of harmonic singing above it.
Acoustic ambient dub? ;)

> "Rainbow Dance" is due out soon on a Phoenix CD (a Danish label). There have been seven or eight prior CD's and even a LP before that (perhaps duplicated on CD).
> The group's website is www.harmonicworld.com.
> They were hoping to give more performances during the next two weeks while here in NYC, but none had been scheduled and they did not call me back to let me know of any.

I called and found out I had the number wrong.
I took one of his workshops two years ago but I wanted
to refresh my memory. Maybe next time he's in town,
I have plenty to practice these days. Between raga lessons and
ji guitar I should be focusing.

> Their singing style is intended to fuse chant, singing and meditation. Singers produce two tones simultaneously, a fundamental and an overtone (at least some of the time), said to be similar to Tuvan throat-singing. (I can do this to a limited extent in whistling, but hadn't guessed it could be done in singing.)

Even three notes at a time!
Yes, it's like Tuvan throat singing.

> The overall effect sounded to me very like some of the "New Age" music I've heard.

Spiritual, yes but a bit too heavy to be "new age".

> Although I concentrated on listening for "beats" so as to tell whether just intonation was being used (it seemed largely so), I could clearly see (from up front, near the stage) that the two fretted instruments (one was a guitar) had frets straight across the fingerboard, indicating equal temperament.

The two guitars were normal 12tet guitars. The fellow
playing the Les Paul was bending a lot of notes while
the acoustic guitar player was playing slide half the time.

Of course the harmonic singing was in ji - they sing overtones!

The concert was recorded for WNYCs New Sounds program.

Hopefully I can write a bit about Michael Harrisons
concert at Roulette in a few days.

--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* xouoxno@virtulink.com
*
* 49/32 R a d i o "all microtonal, all the time"
* M E L A v i r t u a l d r e a m house monitor
*
* http://www.virtulink.com/immp/lookhere.htm

For those in the NYC area, that phone number is (212) 924-4402. Some of the group is still here and a workshop or series of workshops may be offered in January, no definite dates yet. (I called again yesterday after posting the message.)
Thanks for the additional comments, with which I agree. Also, what they called mode three is Dorian, one of the easier to sing of some 31 modes they use out of a still larger number.

>>> David Beardsley <xouoxno@home.com> 11/30 12:05 AM >>>
From: David Beardsley <xouoxno@home.com>