This is a work in progress. I’m going to need to radically reduce the complexity soon. I am now playing with the following triad combinations. I take two triads at a time, and then slip and slide from the first to the second and back, then the second to the third and back, and so on.
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Or download here: Shews.
This is a work in progress. It uses the following chords for now:
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This is a work in progress, and today I’m just noodling around with finger piano, vibes, baritone guitar, and flutes. The title is an archaic spelling for “shows”.
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Here is a final version of Pomp & Parade. The piece is scored for trumpets, trombones, bass finger piano, and baritone guitar. The tuning is based on a 12 note subset of 72 EDO. Here is the Scala file I used to play a 12-tone keyboard.
! 12-Adams.scl
!
12 out of 72-TET
12
!
200.000
266.667
383.333
433.333
500.000
550.000
700.000
883.333
966.667
1050.000
1083.333
1200.000
The piece moves through several six note combinations of the 12 possible notes. It can jump between the first and second and back depending on some indeterminacy. You can think of it as a walk through a set of changes: F_maj to D_min to G_maj to A_min to D_min to F_Maj. It’s a pretty simple chord change. I sometimes throw in variations of those chords, like A+super major instead of A_min and F+super major instead of F_maj.
First Second
F_maj+G_neuN D_min+E_minB
G_maj+A+subN A_min+B-neuB
D_min+E_minN F_maj+G_neuB
F_maj+G_neuN F_maj+G_neuB
F_maj+G_neuN D_min+E_minB
G_maj+A+subN A_min+B-neuB
D_min+E_minN F_maj+G_neuB
F_maj+G_neuN F_maj+G_neuB
F_maj+G_neuN D_min+E_minB
G_maj+A+subN A+sup+B_majB
D_min+E_minN F+sup+A_minB
F_maj+G_neuN F_maj+G_neuB
F_maj+G_neuN D_min+E_minB
G_maj+A+subN A_min+B-neuB
D_min+E_minN F_maj+G_neuB
F_maj+G_neuN F_maj+G_neuB
F_maj+G_neuN D_min+E_minB
The baritone guitar plays chords and strums, and also duplicates the bass finger piano an octave higher. The trumpet and trombone are in octave relationship as well. They kind of blend into each other into a single sound. I make extensive use of envelopes to make the guitar parts have very short choppy sounds, and the horn crescendo.
This is 100% Csound, with my pre-processor generating the Csound source code. The horn samples are commercial, but I made the guitar and bass finger piano samples.
The title is from a letter from John Adams to his wife on the occasion of the Continental Congress ratifying the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1776. John Adams forecast that generations of Americans would celebrate July 2nd:
The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
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I’ve added some trupets and trombones to the mix.
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Someone somewhere suggested having a baritone guitar play the bass part an octave above the bass. In this version, some low pitched finger piano samples take the place of a bass, and the Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky guitar string samples fill in for the baritone guitar.
I love the part in the upper right corner: “Optimal for detuning”. Heh.
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I think I’ve found a way into this scale. As I said in a previous post, it’s a 12 note subset taken from 72-EDO. But the notes are challenging to play on a 12 tone keyboard. For example, a 9:8 D above C is the C# key, and the E 5:4 above C is the Eb key. It gets confusing. But it has a richness to it that is worth the effort.
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I’m struggling to make progress on this one. Here’s today’s work.
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I have almost always used pairs of three note triads, six notes at a time. For example, the overtone series to the 11 limit can be laid out as the overtones 4 5 6 7 9 11, which is made up of a C major and D neutral triad pair. This piece attempts to expand that by taking six note chords and sliding them to other six note chords. Here is an example of one such progression, using baritone guitar strings. The two triads that make up the six note chords can be described as follows:
The progression:
The scale:
And the sound:
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This example is a triadic progression from a 12 note scale from 72 EDO.
The progression:
The scale:
And the sound:
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Or download here: Pomp & Parade.