Name: Elkhorn Slough
Channel: Prent Rodgers
Description: Free MP3 download! Licensing options are available for this track. Elkhorn is a neighborhood in the Sun Valley area of Idaho. There is no slough there, but the idea of one at the 6000-foot level is intriguing.

Elkhorn Slough

Prent Rodgers

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Elkhorn is a neighborhood in the Sun Valley area of Idaho. There is no slough there, but the idea of one at the 6000-foot level is intriguing.

microtonal csound prent r

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Prent Rodgers

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 #126

Peak in subgenre #20

Author

Prent Rodgers

Rights

2001

Uploaded

December 11, 2003

Track Files

MP3

MP3 5.7 MB • 128 kbps • 0:00

Story behind the song

This music explores the Partch Tonality Diamond. The piece is based on a four note chord picked from the overtone series, on the 1st, 5th, 7th, and 9th overtones: 1:5:7:9. The chord shifts up a degree to 9:11:16:20, back down to 1:5:7:9 then down again a degree to 7:9:12:16. These three chords share a common sound, but have very different sense of stability. The first is very stable, with all the tones in their proper place in the overtone series. The next two are very unstable, and provide tension. The piece starts with the second of these chords. It modulates from D++ as the 8:7, down to C 1:1 and plays the same series of three chords. It also shifts down to A# a 16:9 below the C. When it does this, it keeps a number of tones in common: the 1:1 in C becomes the 7:4 of D++, and the 9:8 of A#. More striking are the notes that are not in common. The 5:4 above C is E, but the 9:8 above D++ is E++. These changes are a bit challenging. Keep at it.