Source Code for Csounders

For those who like to peer behind the curtain:

• Preprocessor Source Code: sing53.mac
• which creates the input to Csound: sing53.csd
• which is reprocessed by Csound to add crescendo and decrescendo effects: sing53.csd
• Finally, it is convolved by Csound with an impulse response file of Teatro Alcorcon in Madrid from Angelo Farina: convolv.csd
• Converted to MP3: version 1 slower version 2
  

Enjoy.

Whisper Song in 53 EDO - now 5.26% slower!

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Some of my friends at the Make Microtonal Music Yahoo Group have suggested that perhaps the piece was a bit too relentless. Today I slowed it down by the 53rd root of 2 times four, or 5.26%. Perhaps it's a bit easier to absorb. I'm not sure.

Whisper Song in 53 EDO

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

I think this one is finished for now. This is a piece for Finger Piano, Bass Flute, Cello, and Dry Spring. The Dry Spring is an amplified percussion instrument I made back in the 1970's for live performance. All the sounds are made with Csound as a sample based synthesizer. Tuning is 53 tone to the octave equal divisions of octave (53-EDO)

The structure is kind of like a theme in C major, with a bridge in E minor, A minor, D minor, G minor. The E is a 5:4 above the C at 1:1, so a circle of fourths ends up on a G that is slightly flat. I solve that one by sliding up a step from 30 to 31. See the notes in Sagittal notation in the chart on the right. Each is moved around by the 53rd root of 2, the single step of 53 EDO, a ratio of 77:76. These steps are so small that it is hard to notice that the key has modulated by one, two, or three steps, and then back down.

One section at the end includes a longer bridge that includes the keys shown on the left. They start at kind of an A flat, and move up by fourths until they hit the G a 3:2 above the C at 1:1.

The finger piano samples are from an instrument I made in the 1970's also, when I was playing more live. It has a nice solid base and piano like middle, and harp like highs. By truncating the envelope, I can make it sound more like a Fender Jazz Bass with plastic strings. This envelope is shown below.

The end includes arpeggios of the finger piano with an envelope like the chart at the bottom.

Changing the volume levels

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

There is an arpeggio melody that Flute, Finger Piano, and Cello play. Each instrument can choose how loud to play each three note portion of the melody. It lets the melody float from one to another.

A Short Round About

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

Up and down and around about.

Round and Round

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

The circle of fourths starts with G flat, and ends with G
14 36 05 27 49 18 40 09 31

Repeatability variations

Listen here:

Subscribe here:

This is a work in progress...

The first 30 seconds have repeatability set high: 18 out of 32 for the finger piano, and flute. Then in the middle I set it low: 2 out of 32 for three measures. Then it's back to 18 for the last 30 seconds.