Name: Chain of Flowers
Channel: Prent Rodgers
Description: Free MP3 download! Licensing options are available for this track. Titke refers to the technique of guiding visitors to a museum along a path towards what you want them to learn by entertaining them along the way, like a path of flowers

Chain of Flowers

Prent Rodgers

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Titke refers to the technique of guiding visitors to a museum along a path towards what you want them to learn by entertaining them along the way, like a path of flowers

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 #377

Peak in subgenre #60

Author

Prent Rodgers

Rights

2001

Uploaded

December 11, 2003

Track Files

MP3

MP3 7.9 MB • 128 kbps • 0:00

Story behind the song

This is a piece that uses more material from the Partch Tonality Diamond. The title is taken from the web page of the Museum of Jurassic Technology, the work of David Wilson. Mr. Wilson recently won a MacArthur Foundation grant to continue the work of his museum. On his web page is a quote from Charles Willson Peale, "...guided along as it were a chain of flowers into the mysteries of life." This refers to the technique of guiding visitors to a museum along a path towards what you want them to learn by entertaining them along the way, like a path of flowers. Mr. Peale's museum was one of the first American museums in the early 19th century. He would lead visitors from familiar objects toward the unfamiliar, sometimes horrific in his exhibits.

I use a technique of repetition to highlight the unique sounds of the tonality diamond, kind of like a chain of flowers. Each flower is made up of petals, which are made up of smaller parts, and built into a complete structure.

The musical material consists of chords and arpeggios using the otonality, moving to other chords by steps in the utonality. For example, if C major is 1:1, the chord for C major consists of 4:5:6:7:9:11, called C : E : G : A++ : D+ : F++ in the score. This moves to an Ab major with the intervals 4:5:6:7:9:11 as Ab : C : E-- : F# : Bb : D- . Then to F major as F : A- : C : D# : G : B- , then to D++, A#, and G-- major. This C major, Ab major, F major, D++ major, A# major, G-- major is the basis of the piece. I also use the sub-minor variant of each. I call the 6:7:9 chord the sub-minor: G : A++ : D+ . Each of the major chords has a subminor complement. G complements C, E-- sub-minor complements Ab major, and so on.

There is a great deal of indeterminacy in the piece. The specific chords in the key are chosen more or less at random, within a list of allowable choices. Limitations on the order of choice contribute to consistency. Sort of. A second version of the piece, realized a few minutes after this one, is also available on the MP3 web site.