Resolution in Blue

 

for Microtonal Slide Piano

About this song

This is a piece based on utonal scales, that modulate up the otonality. In it, I explored many different ideas. In no particular order:

1. Applying a frequency function table to a piano note, so that it slides up or down and has a vibrato at the end of the slide, much like a slide guitar.

2. Change the piano sound by applying an amplitude function table to notes. Some have a normal piano sound, some have a gradual crescendo, some are very truncated and dry, some have no attack, also like a country slide guitar.

3. There is more indeterminacy as the piece moves on. At first, almost everything is scripted, but over time, less and less is specified, until at the end, almost anything is possible.

4. I just finished reading Kent Wheeler Keenan's book, "Counterpoint, based on eighteenth century practice", and attempted to use some of the ideas in the context of the Partch hexany.

5. The title of the song, by the way, is from the lead up to the Iraq war. in March 2003, the British Foreign Minister, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, was trying to rally the Security Council to create another resolution to endorse the impending attack. The French suddenly announced that they would veto any resolution put forward by Britain or the US, regardless of language. Sir Jeremy was quoted in the lobby of the U.N. building as saying, "Given this situation the co-sponsors have agreed that we will not pursue a vote on the draft UK-US-Spanish resolution in blue."

Resolution in Blue is the diplomatic language for a permanent resolution. The security council decided to remain siezed of the matter, and the rest is history.

More details can be found in the archives of my weblog. Kyle Gann's comments on the piece in his weblog:

"And you’ve got to hear Prent Rodgers’ Resolution in Blue for slide piano, meaning a piano computer-altered so that it sounds like it’s played with a gigantic whammy bar. The diversity of Postclassical music is endless, the quality very often remarkable. And the classical mavens are all convinced it doesn’t exist."

Csound Function Tables applied to frequency and amplitude

This section describes how function tables are used in the piece to modify frequency and amplitude. Frequency is modulated to create glissandi, and amplitude is modulated using an envelope. They make piano more of a slide guitar. I've been experimenting with Csound sample based instruments for a few years. Recently I spent some time looking at glissandi. In my Csound orchestra, I have an ability to "multiply" a note frequency times an arbitrary function table. If the table is all 1's, then the note is played at the frequency the score tells it to. If the table is all 2's, then the note is played an octave higher. If the table is a function, like a slope, or a segment of a cubic polynomial, you get a glissando. At first, I used flat slopes for glissandi. All my music to date has done this. Start low, go high, on a flat slope. See function 347:

This was made with the Csound function gen07:

f347 0 256 -7 1 128 1 64 2 64 2 ; g46 1/1 --> 2/1 glissando up an octave, about half way thru a note.

then someone in the Csound message board suggested gen06. This subroutine will generate a function comprised of segments of cubic polynomials, spanning specified points just three at a time. After a bit of experimenting, I discovered that this closer to the way slide guitarists play. They start their slide slow, speed up in the middle, and slow down at the end as they near their note. And once they get there, the use the slide to make a vibrato. Consider Function 317. In Csound it looks like this:

lf317 0 129 -6 1 4 1 4 1 16 1.1667 16 1.3333 4 1.3133 4 1.2933 4 1.3133 4 1.3333    4 1.3133 4 1.2933 4 1.3133 4 1.3333 4 1.3133 4 1.2933 4 1.3133 4 1.3333 4 1.3133    4 1.2933 4 1.3133 4 1.3333 4 1.3133 4 1.2933 4 1.3133 4 1.3333 4 1.3133 4 1.2933    ; g16
   Graphically, like this:

Notice the slide up, and the vibrato at the top. This is how I see Muddy Waters and Jonny Winter play. Multiply this times a piano note, and you get some interesting results.

I was disappointed with the sustain of a normal piano sample. Using a conventional envelop, like the following, produces a nice, but relatively dead sound.

Consider the use of an envelope like the following, that starts at half power, and grows as the note is played to full:


This results in a more sustained, if softer sound. Boost the overall amplitude of the note, and you are back to a markedly better sustain. Guitarists are always after better sustain. It's in our genes, even if the axe we now play is a laptop.

An example useing these tricks, plus another using arpeggio by delaying subsequent notes by a bit, illustrate the final chord of a piece I am working on.

There are five chords in this fragment:

  1. Regular envelope, no slide, no arpeggiation
  2. Same with the special sustain envelope
  3. Regular envelope with glides. The 1/1 glides up a 6/5 to 6/5, the 6/5 note glides up a 5/4 to 3/2, and the 3/2 glides up a 4/3 to 2/1. Think of a minor chord sliding up to first inversion. It sounds minor at the start and the end, but as it moves, it could be anything. Each moves at the same time, but a different distance. Don't try this on a guitar.
  4. Sustain envelope with glides. This has a more satisfying sound, since the note doesn't die out as it rises, it seems to grow. (Actually it gets softer a little).
  5. All the above with a slight arpeggio.

Enjoy!