This is a finished version of Sports. The piece is scored for English Horns, Alto Flutes, Baritone Guitars, Finger Pianos, Balloon Drums, and Tube Drums. The rhythm is a simple 12/8 in a 3 2 2 3 2 set. The tuning is my 12-Adams derived from 72-EDO. This tuning has twelve tones, to simplify keyboard playing, and I take six notes a time in each 12/8 measure, but quickly switch to an adjacent six note chord in the next measure and return to the previous in the next. For example, the beginning uses the following two six-note chords:
The first six-note scale contains several notes that are in the second measure’s six note scale, like the notes in the D minor triad. But also in both chords are some very strange intervals, like the F to F+, at 3 72-EDO chords. The piece stays on those two chords for a while, then moves to other pairs of adjacent chords around the Adams twelve. Each measure uses only the six notes in one of the scales at a time. Here are all the ones used in the piece:
There is a melody that plays with varying degrees of variability. I move it up and down the scale, and add trills, slides, and tremolos so that each instrument has several choices for how to play. The choices are driven by the Markov Chain Drunkard’s Walk algorithm, in which the next choice is always either one up or one down from the previous one in the list of alternatives. The melody is composed, but the choice of which variation to play uses the Markov randomizing algorithm. That way, the two flutes, two English horns, and single guitar get five different cracks at the variation, and almost always chose a different one from their fellow melody maker.
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Or download here: Sports.
