Today’s version is for an ensemble of finger pianos, balloon drums, baritone guitar, bass flutes, clarinets, oboes, french horn, and bassoons, with their bass versions. It’s tuned to the 15-limit of the Partch Tonality Diamond.
I wrote it using a python notebook and code that’s available on github here. It has everything you need to duplicate the results. Or actually, since the piece is probabilistic, you can create one that is not exactly like any other.
The structure is in the form of a vamp and a bridge, each around a minute and half in length. The vamp features the woodwinds pretending to be a horn section, with the bass flutes playing slides and trills. Everyone plays tetrachords based on the 4,5,6,7/8 to 9,11,13,15/8 overtones. The bridge has the woodwinds playing one long sliding chord through a set of changes. I assume circular breathing. The bass flute plays the melody, such as it is. Throughout the bass line and percussion is playing the same tetrachords on finger pianos, balloon drums, and a baritone guitar. Tetrachords are four note chords. During the bridge the chords go through some changes that I’ve used in the past.
You can listen to the results here:
