Playlist

Recorded

January 27, 2015
Index Filicum - Steve Peters

Up front there are three strands to the sound. The first is a throbbing resonance, like the last moments of I am sitting in a room. The second are voices whispering what we discover to be the common names of ferns. The third are voices singing what I soon guessed (correctly) to be the Latin scientific names of ferns. The singing voices join together variously in duets and trios and such, studiously paced from few at first to many at last. Words with and without voice. The shape of mouths's chambers speaking with and without sustaining resonance, sustained on a chamber's resonance. Whispers brush against our skin, familiarly.

Gioite voi col canto - Gesualdo - Consort of Musicke, Anthony Rooley

A single utterance, in parts indivisible.

In Session at the Tintinabulary

January 25, 2015
Figure Study 150125
Figure Study 150125 folded
Figure Study 150125 folded rubbed - Keith Eisenbrey

This week I improvised on my big piano.

January 26, 2015
Gradus 258 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

For many years each of Neal's Gradus sessions has consisted of two 20-minute parts, or rungs. This is done in order to speed the progression through the combinations of notes. When he got finished with all the combinations of A-naturals a decision was made to select at random only certain combinations as each new note was introduced. The global effect is to exponentially increase the rate at which progression is made, in the hope of getting to the final combination of all 88 notes at some point within our lifetimes. The last rung of this session consisted of all the A and E naturals. Next up, so I'm told, is C-sharp.

Listening to 40 minutes of A and E I find that my hearing quickly forgets the pitch-class distinction between them. I don't have perfect pitch, and I find at some point, if I want to know whether a note that Neal is playing is A or E, I have to figure it out, usually by discovering which end of a 4th or 5th it's on. I found it interesting how easy it was to treat all of them as being just a single pitch class consisting of all A's and E's - structurally identical at some level. A particularly warped kingdom - a lumpy geometry of pitchspace.