Palindromes

Even before I knew what they were called, I was obsessed with PALINDROMES. As a kid I could not stop seeing them everywhere or even just thinking about them. Sometimes it would make me physically ill to think about them. Often times while driving with one or both of my parents, I would look out the window and see this symmetry on street signs, other cars, people's clothing...this list goes on. My third grade teachers' name was Mrs. Staats. I even thought that most everything I did daily was a palindrome: cleaning my room, walking on the sidewalk, and even sleeping. This drove me mad. Once I became a teenager, I learned to ignore this (of many) quirks I had as a child, but after starting college the urge came back like a familiar visit from an extraterrestrial.

I quickly began to realize that I could transform this weird urge into what I knew best: music. I composed many pieces of music that contained palindromic structures, phrases, and rhythmic sequence. This was extremely satisfying to know that I finally had some control over it and that I could even create it and destroy it at my own will.

I have scanned and uploaded a copy of the only score I have to the first palindromic piece I ever composed (knowingly anyway). Below is the score and a link to the audio I recorded for it. It was composed and performed/recorded around 2003. The piece is for 4 guitars or any instrument capable of performing these pitch sets. It also follows a very traditional and basic Ghanaian rhythmic formula rather strictly in each part:

Spatial



The palindromic idea lies in the form of the piece. As you can see from the score, each instrument has a certain "cycle" it performs for a certain amount of time. The palindrome can be seen in the visual I have created within the score representing the form of the piece. There is also a level of symmetry in the phrases as well, though the melodic and rhythmic content are not very symmetrical. I have attempted to describe the performance instructions as clearly as possible in the score you see above.

Writing music such as this helped me realize that creating a single page score was very useful, practical, and logical. It also helped me realize that palindromes can be heard as well as read and spoken.

My Growing Portable Life

I recently purchased an iPod Touch 2g with 32gb of space to hold all of my music, movies, and, now, applications.

My most recent and impressive of discoveries regarding applications for this handy little device is SignalScope and was written by a company called Faber Acoustical. I have purchased a few other apps from this company's impressive line of audio applications for the iPhone/iPod Touch and have been pleasantly surprised with the professional result. I had waited on purchasing SignalScope as it was most expensive (at 24.99), but since I recently came into a $25.00 gift card for the iTunes store, I decided to give it a try.

Once the download completed I immediately inserted my Macally iVoice III into the dock connector for an attempt at a direct stereo input to SignalSuite. Originally the test was a failure. My last ditch effort was to connect the iVoice into the dock connector while the iPod was turned off and turning it back on. Starting SignalSuite one last time was a success. I immediately received a great signal from my computer (where I had a signal generator creating a sine wave on the left channel at 440 hz and square wave on the right channel at 441 hz.).

Below are some photos that were taken from the capture function in SignalSuite (an excellent feature) and exported through iPhoto and a video that I took with my camera.

The oscilloscope function where the red (left) channel is the sine wave and the green (right) channel the square wave:



The spectrum function using the same parameters as above:



And a little video:



This has quickly become my favorite app for the iPhone/iPod Touch and I will definitely be using it regularly in my audio adventures.

Bitter Music

While I was in college, I became obsessed with Microtonality in music and with that also came my obsession with Harry Partch. Partch was one of the greatest personalities and composers I had ever come across, though I never met him as he died in the 1960's. His theories and ideas about composition/music, history, performance, physics, and living are all quite inspirational to me still. His instruments are some of the most unique in history and hold some of the greatest names (ie, The Spoils of War).

Many people would call Mr. Partch the "Father of Modern Microtonality" and I couldn't agree more. Partch created a 43 note per octave tuning system in the early 20th century (it began as 39 note per octave) to accommodate his compositional style which was far from the traditional Western Equal Temperament that was in use by even the most "avant garde" Western composers of the time. Do not misunderstand, as Partch was not at all attempting to be "avant garde", but rather contribute something to the world that contained not only originality, but an acknowledgment and respect towards the ideas and sounds of the ancient past (he was quite aware of the sounds of ancient Greece and China). His 43 note per octave tuning utilized the ideas of Just Intonation where frequencies are rounded (and tuned) to the nearest whole number ratio creating an effect that is closer to the natural physics of the harmonic series. The result tends to be a bit more consonant than some intervallic examples in equal temperament and other systems (see some of my previous posts for examples and other rants about tuning).

Partch's system may not have existed without his discovery of a book titled "On the Sensations of Tone" by Hermann Helmholtz. As an owner of the book I can assure you that, though being quite dense, is certainly your best bet to understanding where Partch gained most of his knowledge concerning Just Intonation.

Rather than rant about how great Harry Partch is, below are two clips of a short documentary on Partch:






Also, if you would like to "play" some of Harry Partch's instruments, this Virtual Instrumentarium is quite fun and great for sampling.

Another Zolar X Practice Recording

Our version of Space Age Love by Zolar X.

This was mixed by Jonah Mcbride himself.

Recording also done by Jonah

Courtney - Vox/Synth/Bass
Bill - Guitar/Vox
Jonah - Skins

I should mention that we were lucky enough to record this and practice in Jonah's practice space in Allson, MA. Thanks to the guys from Heart of Stone for being so generous in allowing us use of their space.

Mr. Scott: ENERGIZE

Please enjoy a rendition of Energize Me written by Zolar X from our practice last week for the Zolar X tribute show.

Mixed by ME. To the left of center (as usual), you can hear what you see in my previous post put to use.

Recorded by Jonah.

Courtney: Bass/Vox
Jonah: Drums
Bill (me): Guitar/Vox

Back

I know it has been a while since I've posted anything as I have been quite sick and busy (not a great combination).

Courtney and I spent the past week or so practicing for our Zolar X tribute show we did down in Somerville, MA. Our good friends Tim and Lindsay played with their incredible band Thick Shakes and Lindsay set the show up. Tim took some cool pictures and it was a great time despite me being a sickly, frail individual.



I am feeling a bit better now and that means my head is somewhat clear. Whilst preparing and performing the Zolar X material, I got the opportunity to actually play the electric guitar (which I do not do too much anymore. why? I don't really know). One of my favorite things in the world is attempting to achieve the guitar tone I have heard in my head for the past 10 years or so. As of now, I have boiled it down to a few pieces of key equipment that I currently use in my "setup":

1. Vox 125 Lead head (1979-ish)



2. Single germanium transistor treble booster (I originally made one of these in the traditional format: toggle switch sitting on top of the amp. My friend Morgan made one for me in the stompbox format. I used Morgan's for our show this past weekend).

Mine


Morgan's



3. Tech 21 Double Drive (with harmonic boost/cut)



4. Homemade 2x12 cab (speakers are Celestions from a Marshall cab that were given to me by Joe Wizda)



5. Danelectro or Gibson SG guitar (the two are drastically different, but I can satisfy many aural pleasures with just these two guys). Sorry, no photos.

6. Using a dime as a pick




Suffice to say that this is not a lot of equipment and you may say that it is quite minimal, but maybe that is where I have gone wrong in the past. One last thing I decided to do (this thought occurred to me after the show) was to combine the dual input of the Vox 125 Lead into one.

The Vox has two inputs: Normal and Brilliant. I usually plug into the Brilliant channel and kick the high's on the crazy 5-band EQ that it has way down. Actually, I kick the low's down pretty well, too. Regardless, this method works best when using the Rangemaster clone and allows a lot more headroom for other modification on the pedals themselves. I realized that combining the Brilliant and Normal inputs on the amp would give me a more characteristic Vox sound (chimey and yet thick; lots of highs and mids, but plenty of bottom end).

I used an old 1/4" cable for the ends and a stereo input jack that I had lying around to make what you see below.



Sound samples to come in the future.