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Dry Hole Canyon for Woodwind Quintet
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Microtonal music for Woodwind Quintet in a 15-limit tonality diamond. This piece makes extensive use of minor and sub-minor scales derived from the utonality and otonality series.
microtonal csound prent r
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Microtonal Music by Prent Rodgers. Made with Csound.
I am a composer of music using Microtonal intonation systems, including the Harry Partch Tonality Diamond. These systems draw on Just Intonation, which is different from the normal 12-tone equal temperment that western music has been based on for the last 300+ years. Some of the tuning may sound "off" to modern ears, but if you listen, you will hear sounds that are unique in the world, with a whole world between the 1:1 and the 2:1 octave. The music is created using the tool Csound, which is a publicly available, freely distributed digital signal processing tool with the ability to specify exact tone, timbre, and other characteristics of individual tones with greater specificity than the MIDI standard. All the pieces on this site are built using sample-based instruments from the McGill University Master Sample Library.
Song Info
Genre
Classical • Contemporary
Charts
Peak #73
Peak in subgenre #12
Author
Prent Rodgers
Rights
2004
Uploaded
October 15, 2004
Track Files
MP3
MP3 6.7 MB • 128 kbps • 0:00
Story behind the song
Minor scales are derived by the ratios of 24/(24:22:20:18:16:15:14:13:12). Sub-minor are based on the ratios 12:13:14:15:16:18:20:22 :24. There is limited use of Major (8:9:10:11:12:13:14:15:16) derived from the otonality and Super Major 1/(18:16:15:14:13:12:11:10:9) from the utonality. I've always enjoyed the sonority of the woodwind quintet. This piece exploits a number of the unique characteristics of this genre. The melody is made up of multiple phrases that are played by different instruments. When the main line is played by more than one instrument, they blend together into a single new sonority that is unlike the individual parts, but when they play alone it is relatively easy to hear the individual voices. There are two main melodic materials. The first starts with a direct statement by the flute and is repeated by the other instruments, in other scales. This melody is fragmented throughout the piece into unrecognizable chunks. The second melodic statement starts as fragments and is not fully assembled until the very end of the piece. The harmonic material is based on two similar chord progressions. The first is: B 11/6 minor G 3/2 sub minor E 7/6 minor C 1/1 sub minor D 12/11 sub minor G 16/11 major The second is very similar: B 24/13 sub minor G 3/2 minor E 6/5 sub minor C 1/1 minor D 13/12 minor G 13/9 super major These repeat, more or less, from start to finish, spending from 0 to 5 measures on each before moving on to the next. There is a great deal of focus on the first, third and fifth of each scale. This is the typical minor triad. There is less focus on the other notes in the scale. There is extensive use of glissandi. One type of glissando helps the movement from key to key. For example, the motion from B 11/6 minor to G 3/2 sub minor requires movement of the B 11/6 to B 7/4. This is a slide down of 21:22. The G 11/8 moves to G 3/2, a slide up of 12:11. The D 11/10 moves up by 45:44 to D 9/8. It sounds like the bottom is falling out of the winds. Each chord change has a movement set for the main triad similar to this one. The slides give a very unstable feel to the harmonic progression. The second type of glissando is a short fast movement up or down within the scale. It almost doesn't sound like a pitch shift. It is more of a timbral effect. For example, the start of a note might have a slide from the second degree of a scale to the third. In this case a note in the scale of B 11/6 minor would be a C 1/1 moving up to a D 11/10, a slide of 11:10. Played fast, this sounds like a yanking effect, like someone is biting down on the embrochure of their horn. There are dozens of these articulations throughout the piece. They may sound funny at first, but the ear quickly hears them as a normal part of the instruments repertoire. Or you can think of them as musicians sniffing helium and then blowing. It's your choice. As with all my music, there is a certain amount of indeterminacy in the music. I allow the software to choose which phrase to play at any given moment, and how long to stay in a scale before changing. This leads to multiple versions of the song, which have different details within the overall structure of the piece. Humor plays a role in my music also. There are lots of musical and harmonic puns. The bassoon is playing lots of rock and roll bass lines from Motown songs. ("Bring on your Love Life", for example). The melodies make extensive use of very small intervals, that may sound bizarre to the inexperienced non-microtonal listener. Listen and let your ears travel to places you may not have heard before.
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