Blog

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress…

This is the first take of the day, and it’s a keeper.

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress…

I’m trying to work out a contrasting theme, but I’m stuck on a chord that doesn’t sound right. More later.

The picture at the right is from a slide show at Carlton College’s Illustrated Guide to a Glacier.

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress…

I was able to convince the gang to stick around for a few more takes of the piece. Thanks to Omar the tuba player for helping me revoice the winds to lower octaves. We spent all day Sunday running new takes, but something seemed to get in the way with each one. Finally we were able to get a good run through on the 17th try Monday morning. This one includes clarinet, oboe, tuba, marimba, vibes, finger piano, harp, and cello, plus the opening notch filtered wind tunnel sound recorded at the NASA Ames Research Center. As always, fake but accurate is my motto. Blue Glacier starts near the top of Mount Olympus, and terminates into Glacier Creek, which eventually flows into the Hoh River.

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress…

This is the second piece in the RPM Challenge. 10 songs or 35 minutes of recordings in the month of February. Onward down the valley.

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress…

You do have to watch your step or you get off your rhythm.

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress…

Downhill all the way.

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress…

Near the top of the mountain, it is important to avoid the crevasse caused by the separation of the glacier from the summit. Often hundreds of feet deep, it can be a formidable obstacle in the wind at night.

Dick Hogle has set his light show to my Stick Shift Chevy Shake piece from 2005. He has recaptured the 1960’s liquid light shows perfectly, and set it to some slippery microtonal changes. Here’s the link.

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress…

The winds tend to howl at this elevation, especially when the storms blow in from the Pacific. Warm wet clouds this evening had a eerie sound as they blew up the glacier from the west. In this case, a descending utonality from 3:2 to 6:5 to 1:1 to 12:7 to 4:3 to 12:11 to 1:1. How do they do that?

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress…

If you’re going to do a story of a trip down a river, you need some birds. There are lots of birds along the Hoh River. The U.S. National Forest Service has a wonderful map and pictures at that link, with the names of some of the birds in upland, forest, and wetland habitat of the river. Thanks to the Peterson Guides for the bird calls in this collection.

HABITAT: Olympic National Park old-growth rainforest of moss-draped maples, black cottonwood, conifers; wetlands, Hoh River.
BIRDING: Riparian deciduous trees rustle with Hammond’s Flycatchers, Warbling Vireos, Black-throated Gray Warblers, Downy Woodpeckers. Stately conifers sustain Hairy and Pileated Woodpeckers, Pacific-slope Flycatchers, Chestnut-backed Chickadees. Ponds host Green-winged Teals, Ruddy and Ring-necked Ducks, Hooded Mergansers.
VIEWING: Walk 0.7-mile Hall of Mosses loop, 1.2-mile Spruce Nature Trail.
ACCESS: From Hwy 101 at milepost 178.5, turn east onto Upper Hoh Rd. Drive 19 miles. Park at Olympic National Park Visitor Center.
MORE BIRDING: For seriously hardy birders, 18.5-mile Hoh River Trail ascends to alpine meadows for Gray-crowned Rosy Finches, Black Swifts.

That’s where it gets interesting. This was mixed with Csound.