Ding Dang Dong.

I regret missing class this week. But I've been planning to make my bells performance KICK ASS for months, and I think I did it. So rather than blog about the themes of the class, I thought I'd write a brief annotation to the performance just to keep the blogs up to date.

I'm really glad I gave myself HEAPS of time to set up. Like a fool, I left a power supply at home, the power supply for the drummer, James', headphone mixer. Luckily Alice managed to drive home and back to get it while I set everything else up, and I don't think anyone noticed the mistake.

Overall, I was pretty nervous about the performance. I was really happy with it, but because of the power supply mishap, I didn't get a run through/sound check before everyone arrived, which made me nervous. I think we pulled it off beautifully. Some of the notes seemed to trigger wrong, and I think that was just a case of the midi cable being too long (10 feet is the recommended distance for midi, and this was 25 feet).

My piece is still untitled. I had begun the whole thing influenced by the Higgs Boson discovery, and wanted to write a sort of secular hymn. As the process continued, I was almost writing it about something else. One idea that got in the way was this idea of Spring time (the weather had been influencing me), and the story of Persephone. I tried to make the song about the temptation of Persephone from the pomegranate's perspective, but as I researched the story and wrote my lyrics, I found it increasingly difficult, kind of like write a song about rape from the rohypnol's perspective. I wanted the song to be joyous and full of energy, but with a longing that can't be placed. Then I  decided not to set anything in stone with lyrics, and instead worked with some glossolalic syllables. That's something I want to explore further. Using my voice, without words, but with specific sounds in place of the words. Like a made up language, like Sigur Ros or Dead Can Dance or similar. In future, I will make a whole record like that, and see what happens.

I feel like the piece is still about spring, and about the potency of science. I like the pomegranate as the imagery for the piece, and will probably expand on it further. Maybe lyrics will come, maybe not. who knows right now.

Sonically, the sounds in the piece are: the Federation Bells, sleigh bells, 3 dancers with 200 tiny bells each, sampled sleigh bells cut up and "glitched" and panned around the 4 channel surround system, reversed samples of the Federation bells drenched in reverb and also panned around the space. Voice, put through 4 different tempo delays, 1 for each speaker, drums, a filtered beatbox response to the kick drum pattern that plays a 3 on 2 poly rhythm it one pair of speakers and the same pattern reversed in the other pair. A synth bass drone that has been tuned to the just tuning of the bells and panned slowly around the space, and a dirty synth bass line that plays out of all 4 channels at once over the end rocking out section.

I do have plans to expand on the music. It began as one of my daily loop pieces from before semester started.



I'd like to eventually have lyrics and perhaps vocoder/guitar in the piece. Maybe replace some of the bells with rhodes or celeste, and sample/record the bells live in the space to add to the recording. Over the summer I think I'll try to work on some more "sections" by expanding on the musical phrases.

There's essentially 3 "sections" in the work so far. There's the intro part with the straight 8th notes, which also returns at the end, and overlaps in the middle a bit. The "verse" with the bass drone progression and the vocals. The elastic break down section that has no bass, and eventually becomes the bass line at the end of the song. All these sections have potential to grow further, so who knows where it will end.

Since it's kinda become about spring, i'd like to pursue it as the nocturnal mirror to Gyokuro. If that doesn't work, I'll save it for down the line when I make my glossolalia record.

I think I've rambled on long enough about this.