Podcast Bumper Music

Through Western Bog Laurel - take 20

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:24:38 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is the last version for now, I think. I slow the piece down by a small amount every 40 seconds until it is running around 11% slower at the end. Each of the 12 tempo reductions are done by the ratio of 2^(1/72), which is the 72nd root of two (1.0096735332). The beats per minute are divided by that number 12 times. Coincidentally, that's the same as the ratio of one note to the next in 72-EDO, the tuning the piece is realized in. I can't figure out how that happened, but there it is.

Csound takes care of tempo with the t tempo statement.
t0 1200 800 1200 896 1188 1592 1188 1688 1176 2376 1176 2472 1164 3152 1164 3248 1152 3920 1152 4016 1140 4680 1140 4776 1129 5432 1129 5528 1118 6177 1118 6273 1107 6915 1107 7011 1096 7645 1096 7741 1085 8368 1085 8464 1074 9084 1074 9180 1063 9792 1063 9888 1052 10493 1052 10589
The t0 makes it a tempo statement. The next number is the beats per minute, in this case 1200. A quarter note is about 8 beats when there are 1200 beats a minute. The next number after beats per minute is the number of beats where the next tempo marker is found, in this case 1200. So it stays at 1200 beats a minute for 800 beats, about 100 eighth notes. The next number 896 is the beat marker, and 1188 is the beats per minute. 1200 / 1.0096735332 is 1188, approximately. Over the next 96 beats or 12 eighth notes, it slows down from 1200 to 1188 beats per minute. Then at beat 1592 it starts to slow down to 1176 beats per minute, arriving at that speed at beat 1688. The overall effect is a gradual slowing down, sometimes noticably, sometimes imperceptively, until it stops.

Through Western Bog Laurel - take 19

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:16:36 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is another take on the same piece I've been working on for a while. This version includes adjustments to the tuning of the samples. There were some intonation problems with the marimba, harp, vibes, flute, and balloon drum. To determine pitch I used Cooledit (now called Adobe Audition) and its FFT option. You basically load a sample file and select Analyze-FFT and it puts up a Fast Fourier Transfer window showing the most prominent frequencies, with the pitch in note/cents from 12-EDO for the most prominent frequency. For most non-bass notes that is the fundamental. Here's one for the harp D#6, 4 cents flat at a point about half a second into the harp sample.

My Csound preprocessor allows me to put -4 into a list of samples, and Csound adjusts the sample when it's used in the synthesis instrument. Four cents is not noticiable, for the most part. Anything over 10 is not good.

Most of these samples, from the McGill University Master Samples CDROM library, are not very in tune, and they don't necessarily hold the same pitch for the whole note. Many go up and down by a few cents from the start to finish.

This is the first time I have systematically used the Cooledit frequency analysis to fine tune the samples. I previously tuned them by ear to a reference sine wave. It was a time consuming process, and error prone. The harp sample was particularly out tune, with one note 43 cents off, and others 10-20 off. The flute was also way out of tune, with the highest note 31 cents sharp. Here's C6 31 cents sharp one second into the sample. Typical flute player getting excited that he can hit such a high note. I back that sample down by 31 cents and we are good to go.

Through Western Bog Laurel - take 11

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:54:21 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a version of the finished work. It is scored for flutes, marimba, vibe, finger piano, harp, balloon drums, and a percussion board with a contact microphone. The latter instrument includes several rocks, toothbrushes, and pieces of wood, glass, and rocks glued to the surface of a piece of sitka spruce. If you hear something that sounds like a monkey chant, it's probably the percussion board.

The intonation is 72-equal divisions of the octave (72-EDO) approximating the Partch tonality diamond to the 15 limit. There are many glissandi and trills employed. The marimba and vibe are given many opportunities to trill and slide around their pitches. The triad is the basic melodic element, either 4:5:6 or 7:9:11 or their inversions in the major scale, and comparable chords in the sub-minor and minor modes.

The piece starts out in B 16/9, with a scale based on the overtone series. As shown on the chart below, it modulates around the tonality diamond from there. Click on the chart for a larger version. The yellow colored blocks are the B 16/9 major scale. The subminor D 12/11 is in orange, the subminor G 3/2 is in pink, the C 1/1 minor is green, and the F 4/3 major is in blue. I use glissandi to slide from one chord to another.

As with all my works, there is a great deal of indeterminacy. Each instrument has many choices to make, subject to constraints about repeatability and change. Imagine a band improvising from a set of approved riffs.

Fridge over Bob Launer

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:20:03 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Another time through with a different mix of patterns for the instruments to choose from.

The Bridge over Western Bog Laurel

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:37:40 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

The bridge has the changes referred to earlier.

Another Sketch for TWBL

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:48:59 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Here's another step along the way towards the Western Bog Laurel piece. Today's sketch uses semi-unison lines in the harp, finger piano, vibe, marimba, bass finger piano, and balloon drums. I say semi-unison because each instrument can change alter his line by a few notes. There is a variable randomness setting in the software. The balloon drum part has more notes than the others, but that's because his sustain is so limited.

Each chord can have a variety of alterations: straight, trill, or slide. The trills and slides move each note in a triad up or down by a step in the otonality scale. Bb 16/9 can go up a 9:8 to C 1/1 or down a 7:8 to Ab 14/9. The D 10/9, which is a 5:4 above the Bb 16/9 can go up an 11:10 to Eb 11/9 or down a 9:10 to C 1/1. And the F 4/3 a 3:2 above Bb 16/9 can go up a 7:6 to Gb 13/9 or down a 11:12 to an Eb 11/9. The slides are nice and sweet. Here is the glissando up a 12:11 in Csound:

f 323 0 256 -7 1 64 1 128 1.0905077 64 1.0905077 ; 12:11 22 up 9

And here it is graphically, as rendered by Csound to a PDF file:

Sketch for Western Bog Laurel

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:51:59 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

The subminor scale is my name for a minor scale built from overtones, but with the root of the scale starting on the 3:2 instead of the 1:1. For example, consider an overtone series on F. The 3:2 above F is C. If the scale is based on a mode starting on C, as shown in the graph above, you have the subminor scale.

As with all overtone series, a cluster of notes above a certain pitch will always generate a difference tone. But even though the scale designed to favor the root at C, the difference tone will always be F. I will have to take that into consideration when I add low notes. They will have to resolve that F to C, and choose notes carefully to minimize the difference tone prominence.

Through Western Bog Laurel

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:18:27 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Listen to the difference tones move around in this set of changes.

B 16/9 major
D 12/11 sub minor
G 3/2 sub minor
C 1/1 minor
F 4/3 major
B 16/9 major

In this case, major is an otonality based 4:5:6 triad. Sub minor is otonality based also, but on the 6:7:9 overtones. Think of a G minor using G Bbb D. Minor is utonality minor 6/6:5:4. When I slide from one chord to another, the difference tones go in strange directions. They will probably disappear as I add more instruments to the mix. Today is sounds like a nice barbershop harmony tune that could have been taken from a hymnal.

72 EDO Sagittal

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:38:06 PDT

Does this look right? It is supposed to show the steps of 72 Equal Divisions of the Octave in the Saggital font. I seem to remember I had the wrong accidentals a while back. Click on the image to see full size.

Floating the Lower Hoh Take 5

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sun, 03 May 2009 10:41:04 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:
This version includes several mirror functions. Where earlier sections used predominantly the utonality triad 5/(4:5:6), which is a standard just minor chord in A, there are now complementary sections that use 10/(7:9:11), higher up the utonality diamond.

The overtone series can be thought of as overtones 4:5:6 making up a major chord, and higher up overtones 7:9:11 extending that out. The undertone series is the opposite of overtone series. Other mirror functions have the choice of notes to play proceed sequentially, then backwards.

The piece is scored for sine waves. This is the first time I haven't used orchestral samples in a piece. No more jokes about fake but accurate. The intonation is 53 tone equal divisions of the octave approximating just.

Source Code

Csound Score
Macro Preprocessor Source Code
Pascal Source code

Floating the Lower Hoh Take 2

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:53:34 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

The lower reaches of the Hoh have dense vegetation on both sides of the river. This section gets upwards of 240 inches of rain a year. Every storm that hits the Northwest passes over this region, dropping moisture by the bucketful. Cool, damp, quiet, and relentlessly moving towards the ocean to start the cycle again.

Floating the Lower Hoh

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:21:31 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

45 seconds into the work, we have some changes on the way.

Sines

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:53:40 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Tobiah wrote on the Csound mailing list a challenge to write a score for a very simple Csound orchestra file.

I have an idea for a brief informal contest. Given a simple,
one-oscillator orchestra, provide a score which produces the
most beautiful piece.

I offer an orchestra that I crafted for the purpose
of this event. One can make use of very limited
envelope an pan controls. Obviously, the craft will
be in the score generation program (although one is
welcome to hand edit her entry!).

If there is interest, I suggest a seven day window
for this challenge. Only the scores should be
submitted at first. We can look at source code
later. For large scores, a URL might be best. I can host
scores if you send them to me in an archive format.

Thanks,

Toby

sr = 44100
ksmps = 1
nchnls = 2

giSineFunc ftgen 1, 0, 65536, 10, 1

instr 1

;***** INIT SECTION *****
iDur init p3
iVol init p4
iStartPitch init p5
iEndPitch init p6

iAttack init p7
iDecay init iDur - iAttack

iPanStart init p8
iPanEnd init p9

;***** SYNTH SECTION *****
kEnv linseg 0, iAttack, iVol, iDecay, 0
kPitch expseg iStartPitch, iDur, iEndPitch
aSig oscili kEnv, kPitch, giSineFunc

kPan linseg iPanStart, iDur, iPanEnd

aLeft = aSig * kPan
aRight = aSig * (1 - kPan)

outs aLeft, aRight

endin

Never one to shirk a contest, I made some modifications to my Csound preprocessor to write the fields that his orchestra expects, and the results sounded kind of like all my other music made with my Csound preprocessor. The input to the preprocessor is here, and the Csound score is here. There are lots of debugging messages in the score as comments. When I've had more time to work on it, I'll remove them. I had to make one modification to the sine wave generator function. I replaced giSineFunc ftgen 1, 0, 65536, 10, 1 with an equivalent ftable entry f1 0 65536 10 1 .

My version of Csound is 4.19, which is many levels back from the current version. It doesn't support giSineFunc. But since I wrote the preprocessor in Turbo Pascal, which is still running today with a last touched date of May 2, 1989, I can't complain. Software currency is for losers.

Slow Dance #2

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 11:51:31 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

There was an earlier Slow Dance that took two otonality triads and slid them in opposite directions, so I thought it would be useful to do the same with two utonality triads. The original took a chord of 8:10:12 and slid it up to 9:11:14, while sliding a 9:11:14 triad down to 8:10:12. This one takes the 12:(12,10,8) up to 12:(11,9,14) and visa versa. There is a point in the middle of the slide when a minor chord can be heard, midway between the two. The utonality triads are much less settled than the otonality ones.

Rafting the Middle Fork - Take 11

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:35:38 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:
It sometimes takes the guys a few tries before they get it right. And no, there really isn't a middle fork of the Hoh River in Washington. There's a south fork, but that doesn't sound right for a song title.

Rafting the Middle Fork

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:14:16 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

This piece rapidly changes pace from fast to slow, alternative the finger piano, marmiba, and slide vibraphone parts from sixteenth notes to eighth notes, with several 3 against 4 against 6 against 8 rhythms. The tempo also shifts, very gradually, from one tempo to another, by about 30% up and down. It ends about 60% slower than it started.

The pitch also shifts. It starts in the key of A minor, but drops by one 53-TET step every 30-60 seconds. The shifts are difficult to perceive. It's as if you suddenly notice that you are not where you thought you were. Over the course of the ten minutes the tonality drops by 22 steps, to a fourth below A, ending at E.

The tonality is the utonality to the 15 limit. In ratios, they are 24/(16,20,24,14,15,18).

The vibraphone, marimba, and finger pianos play repetitive rhythmic patterns,
while the french horn, clarinet, and oboe play a descending melody, answered by a inverse melody later in the piece.

The overall theme is of descending a river, with fast and slow sections, some complex, some serene, but always moving downhill.

Sketch for Rafting the Middle Fork

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:00:36 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

I've added a marimba part and modified the vibraphone a bit. More to come later.

Sketch for "Rafting"

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:09:31 PDT

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Just finger piano and vibraphone for now.

The Music of the Hoh River Valley - MP3 versions

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:22:05 PST

I finished the CD for the RPM challenge on Sunday. Here are the pieces all in one place for those interested, in MP3 format. Liner notes here.

The Music of the Hoh River Valley - FLAC versions

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:40:29 PST

I finished the CD for the RPM challenge on Sunday. Here are the pieces all in one place for those interested, in FLAC format. I'll only be able to keep these up for a short while because of the size. Liner notes here.

All the FLAC's can be downloaded by right mouse clicking and choosing "save as", or some such browser specific command. They all end in the extension of .FLA, so they may need to be renamed as .FLAC once they are downloaded.

Elk Lake Dancing

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 10:00:56 PST

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

This is the final piece I was able to finish for the RPM Challenge. Written for the same instruments as the others: clarinet, oboe, cello, finger piano, harp, marimba, vibraphone. I would have liked to include some Elk calls, but I ran out of time. The harmony is based on the otonolity to the 15 limit, modulating down a scale derived from the utonality series. It's the same set of changes as my 2002 piece Mirror Walk.

This is a descending scale, but the voicings from one chord to the next are done so that it sounds like it's going up, when it actually goes down.

The rhythm is based on dividing 30 beats into one of two general ways: either 5 6 beat quarter notes or 7 4 beat quarter notes and a 2 beat eighth note, with the latter quarter notes slower than the former. 5 * 6 = 30 and 7 * 4 + 2 = 30. It's kind of like a 3 against 4, except the 3 has a 5:4 feel to it, and the 4 has a lopsided samba feel.

Dancing around Elk Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:10:41 PST

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Trying out some material for a dance piece. This is just the mallet instruments for now. I'm finding ways to divide up 30 beats. More later.

Elk Lake is a small alpine lake above Glacier Creek, before it empties into the Hoh River, with a nice small campground.

The Rocks of Glacier Creek

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:49:39 PST

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

This is another take of this piece. It's scored for environmental sounds and a small ensemble of skilled microtonalists. The environmental sounds are recordings of a gentle waterfall and some birds typically found at the confluence of Glacier Creek and the Hoh River or thereabouts. The birds are the Hermit Thrush, the Black Throated Blue Warbler, the Stellar's Jay, the Hairy Woodpecker, the Pileated Woodpecker, and the Warbling Vireo.

The small ensemble of skilled microtonalists include clarinet, oboe, vibraphone, marimba, finger piano, cello, and harp. They are asked to accurately play the 53 TET scale, and also carefully slide up a set number of steps, for example, by 8 or 10 steps (approximating the ratios of 11:10 or 8:7 respectively). These guys are amazing in their flexibility and accuracy. I ask them to pick the chord inversion they want, and then slide up or down by a predetermined amount. My vibraphone player has perfected the art of bending his aluminum bars just the right amount to descend by a 6:7 (12 steps in 53-TET).

As always, this music is fake but accurate. Here is some of the coding for the sliding chords. The following is put through my Csound preprocessor to generate the necessary Csound code.
.slid-min3-u-a135 t+0&gls11:10. t+14&gls10:9. t+17&gls8:7. .slid-min3-u-a351 o-1t+14&gls10:9. t+17&gls8:7. t+22&gls11:10. .slid-min3-u-a513 o-1t+31&gls8:7. t+22&gls11:10. t+14&gls10:9. .slid-min3-d-a531 o+1t+31&gls8:9. t-17&gls10:11. t-14&gls6:7. .slid-min3-d-a153 o+1t+0&gls6:7. t-22&gls8:9. t-17&gls10:11. .slid-min3-d-a315 t+14&gls10:11. t-14&gls6:7. t-22&gls8:9. .slid-min3-u-b247 t+7&gls11:10. t+15&gls9:8. t+19&gls7:6. .slid-min3-u-b472 o-1t+22&gls9:8. t+19&gls7:6. t+19&gls11:10. .slid-min3-u-b724 o-1t+41&gls7:6. t+19&gls11:10. t+15&gls9:8. .slid-min3-d-b274 o+1t+7&gls10:11. t-19&gls7:8. t-19&gls9:10. .slid-min3-d-b427 o+1t+22&gls9:10. t-15&gls10:11. t-19&gls7:8. .slid-min3-d-b742 t+41&gls7:8. t-19&gls9:10. t-15&gls10:11.
To call the chord, I just have to write code for each instrument, like this:
.mari-16-min-1f &mari.&key.e16w0d0h17&slid-min3-d-a*.d16 .mari-16-min-1g &mari.&key.e16w0d0h17&slid-min3-d-b*.d16
Then I call it when I want it to play like this:
&mari-16-min-1*.
The asterisk is a "don't care" character. This way, I can create several different note strings and let the computer pick the one it wants him to play at any given moment. Notice that the -a chords are the utonality triad to the 5 limit, and the -b are the higher overtones to the 11 limit. The chord slides from one to the other.

The &gls11:10. variables invoke a Csound function table that slides a note up or down over its duration by a very specific amount and timing. I basically multiply a note by a table of 256 values from 1 to a number larger or smaller than 1. Here is the relevant Csound code for a function table that slides a note to which it is applied by an 8:7. 8 divided by 7 is 1.14285714.
;f# step start at 1, stay there for 48 of the 256 steps ; move to 1.14285714 over 128 steps ; stay there for 80 of the 256 steps. f324 0 256 -7 1 48 1 128 1.14285714 80 1.14285714 ; 8:7 g23 up 10

The Rocks at Glacier Creek

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:13:48 PST

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

The water moves quickly as it descends from the higher elevations. It tends to form eddies where the rocks block the flow. The water swirls to fill the gaps. Later, the rocks fall away and the water flows unimpeded down the valley. Soon, the rocks pile up and slow the water again.

Rocks at Glacier Creek

noreply@blogger.com (Prent Rodgers) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:27:04 PST

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

This one is in 9: 5/4 + 4/4. There is a later section that shifts to some other combinations. This is a sketch for now.