Author: Prent Rodgers

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Added some other instruments and a minor bridge of a circle of fifths. Because it’s in 53 tone equal, it doesn’t quite come around. So I move up by a single step, and keep going.

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I ordinarily take about 3-6 months, sometimes more, to create a 5 minute piece of music. I can only devote around ten to twenty minutes each day to composing. And each note takes a bit of time to get right using my hand coding of Csound input. Slow but steady, you might say.

So it is with some trepidation that I’ve undertaken to participate in the RPM Challenge 2008: Record an album of ten songs or 35 minutes of music during the month of February 2008. That’s about 60 times faster than my ordinary work habits. But what the hell, I’ll give it a go.

To try to focus my mind around the challenge, I’m writing a sound track to an imaginary movie about the Donner Party. You know, the forlorn group that set out in April 1846 for California, only to be waylaid by a late October snowstorm while trying to cross the Sierras. Many starved to death over the next few months as their meager rations ran out. Half did not make it to Sacramento. Those that did told horrid tales of cannibalism. I’ve been thinking about an opera based on the story for many years, but that’s too much for this effort.

Here’s today’s start of the first scene, when the participants set out from Springfield, IL, headed for Independence, MO. There is optimism in the air. As the wiki says: The trip is timed to begin when the spring rains have subsided and grass for the draft animals is available, and to end before snow makes the Sierra Nevada impassable.

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A variation on the Bassoon solo.

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There is nothing like a little percussion to get the beat straight. It’s in 13, with three subdivisions of 3 and two of 2. These five subdivisions are randomly mixed up, sometimes it’s 3 3 3 2 2, sometimes 3 2 3 3 2, and so on.

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The shorter springs sound more like steel drums. They appear about 1/4 of the way in echoing the longer springs.

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Each instrument can chose what to play, or if to remain silent. When they all chose to be quiet at the same time, we get negative space.

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Still working on an escalation of complexity problem. Soon the bassoon will be set free to explore more territory.

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Starting simpler and adding more things.

I’ve decided to put a few more tunes up somewhere other than my SoundClick page. For those who’d prefer not to have to register, and to make them available on my Facebook page. (Sorry you have to join to see it. Not much there,believe me. Details on all the songs, including source code here under “Liner Notes”.

Balloon Drum Music

Chain of Flowers

Mirror Walk

Subduction Zone

The Stick Shift Chevy Shake

Tsantsa Circle Dance

Whisper Song in 53 EDO

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I solved the problem of the slide flute, with balloon membranes. I was challenged with changing the resonant frequency of a tube, and discovered that it was dependent on the flexibility of the walls of the enclosure. Instead of a complex mechanism of sliding tube lengths, all that was necessary was a balloon at both ends. Now, the Bassoon is more complex. I must resort to computer modifications:

lf 357 0 256 -7 1 64 1 128 1.7548172 64 1.7548172 ; 7:4 g56 up 43

Slides up by a 7:4, from C to Bb. Then from Bb to C

lf 324 0 256 -7 1 64 1 128 1.1397199 64 1.1397199 ; 8:7 g23 up 10


.bassoon10 &bas.&key.e16d72h76u3&gls7:4. u0d32h34t+43&gls8:7.