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Isomelody and Isorhythm

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An interesting exercise is to take an existing melody (as I did with the Bach cello suite) and map it over another rhythm. You can compose your own or use an existing one. With Be Bach I used the sequence of notes in the Suite and mapped it over a bop rhythm that I composed. After the melody was done I added chord changes. (Someone should write a program that will do this automatically.) Here is the source Bach cello Suite:      A more recent video:   Using isorhythm in a bass line:   
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Cargo Cult (Final)

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I was going for something evoking a prehistoric beast in a tropical landscape. I think I did it. Basses always make things heavier. Play Me The original bass parts in the alternate tuning are still there but mixed low and have lots of effects on them. Their interaction with the fretless makes for some sour clashes at certain points, and sounds interesting that way. Here is a picture of our subject:
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Anthropocene

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Anthropocene (2017) 18x24 inches, acrylic, custom stencil, hardware, on double panel. $1500 or best offer Another piece in my text art series ("Hash Art", as a pun on "Flash Art"), using the MD5 Hash: 26A62357DD22BB74226DB1DF2D71AB68 as the digital "fingerprint" for the following quote by Paul MacCready, also referred to as the "The MacCready Explosion". The Hash is a semaphore or icon for a possible beginning point of the Anthropocene based on the quote. "Over billions of years on a unique sphere, chance has painted a thin covering of life--complex, improbable, wonderful and fragile. Suddenly, we humans--a recently arrived species, no longer subject to the checks and balances inherent in nature--have grown in population, technology and intelligence to a position of terrible power." You can test the code by copying/pasting this block of text exactly into the Hash Converter: http://onlinemd5.com The three stencil colors [c...
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January 2nds

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1/2/2005 They’re razing the old Sun-Times building in the Loop, and when I pass by it I always tune into the sound of jackhammers echoing through the empty space. [Now site of Trump Tower]                Ambient Audio: [1/2/2025: Little did we know how that eponymous tower would represent the end of American democracy as we knew it. Perhaps it was always fragile and we naively thought, even after 9/11, that it would be razed].      1/2/2007 Projects for 2007: Music For Places, Highway Cinema.  [1/2/2026: Resolutions actually do work, but it can take sometimes a decade to see the results. What's important are "seeds"]  1/2/2012             James Howard Kunstler’s prediction/forecast:             “Vlad Putin has held things together there impressively after the meltdown of the 1990s, but apparently the tranquil veneer is thin. Except for two big citie...
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Moonrise in Hernandez

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  Possible lyrics: Moonrise in Hernandez Moonrise in Hernandez A burning of the sky At the roadside A moment that remains Forever in our mind's eye Moonrise in Hernandez Moonrise in Hernandez Inversion of the sun At the right time The light against a cross Emblazoned on the black sky   According to Adams, the original capture was on Halloween 1941.   How it looks in daylight 2021: The video: The original idea for the song came to me on a weekend outing to the Saganashkee Slough on June 6, 2021. The slough is a small lake in the Palos Forest Preserves southwest of Chicago. "We're goin' to the Saganashkee Slough" was the riff, and when I got home I notated it. It turned out much different, although this version with the meter changes is cool too. Also interesting--given that this ultimately became the "score" for the Ansel Adams photo, there are two dates on it: 11/1/1941 and 6/6/2021. Thoughts and ideas can sometimes encode the place in which they ...
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September 30ths

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9/30/1997             Roy Lichtenstein died. His use of ads, cartoons, etc. is similar to using samples in music. Music is really mimicking what happens in the art world, but with a long lag time.     9/30/1998             Surfed the Net on collaborative information filtering idea. Lots of great links: The Game of Life, the “Serendip” page. Must revisit.  [9/30/2024: This was the beginning of what we now know as simply an “algorithm”—the black box that defines the world we experience online, and now in life in general because it is recommending our relationships and how we navigate them. It has not been good for society or democracy because it is about collectivism as opposed to community. Viktor Frankl: “Only the community can ensure the meaning of individuality for the individuals…only the safeguarding of individuality for the individuals can ensure the meaning of community. This is what distingu...
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Conundra

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  This will challenge you--as most conundra do. Full Mix: Mix Minus One: It arises from a riff idea I had back in the early 90s (originally titled Trick of Life) when I was more into jazz. It is a repeating chord pair consisting of a major chord advancing up in fourths through all 12 keys.  I composed a possible solo and highlighted the operative modes, but you can select your own. The real challenge is to memorize the sequence moving up in 4ths (or down in 5ths) without the root always being there, while sometimes feeling unmoored and lost, then merging again at some point.   Getting lost is inevitable, and is the point of the etude. It is also finding your way as a group. It's okay to make mistakes--which could even be more interesting in a jazz setting where it expected that things sound "wrong". The sequence also lends itself to pattern formation. For example, you can play the Phrygian mode across all of the chord changes, and move the sh...
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Rifts (Lydian Landscapes)

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Solo piano improvisations in the Lydian mode for all 12 keys, following the circle of fifths. (Side A is flat keys, Side B, sharp keys, progressing from the outside to inside of the disc.) The purpose of the exercise was to see what I could do manually as an improvisation using a constraint (the Lydian Mode), then create an algorithm to do the same thing. The characteristic sonority of Lydian is a chord in 4ths built on the #4, and all the pieces start and/or end on it. Rifts by Lee Barry
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