A Lesser Light

I_Themes and Variations for Piano in F Major

II_Tolling (Womb to Tomb)

III_Absence of Anywhere (in Ab Major)

IV_Andy, Did You Hear About This One?

8.1 Surround sound,  Compact discs, players.

2018

A LESSER LIGHT was a month-long installation programmed into four distinct movements, occupying one week each.

Every movement used the same framework throughout: each of the eight speakers could play one melodic short at a time via dedicated CD changer cueing snippets randomly from the movement's library. Thus every movement—given one full week of nonstop play— resulted in a series of unrepeated chance arrangements and infinite eight-part harmonies. 



from A Lesser Light

Themes and Variations for Piano in F Major

_explodes the classical piano sonata form. T&V's hundreds of original piano mini-compositions could in sequence comprise a traditional linear piece; but via A LESSER LIGHT they become an unpredictable and infinitely harmonious octet.

A Lesser Light: Each composition in this series is divided into hundreds of unique voices and elements, which are divided among twenty-four CDs, and distributed equally among the four CD carousels. Set to random/repeat, the CDs orbit freely, playing completely arbitrary combinations of sounds through the installation’s eight speakers—completely rearranging the original composition into an infinite–length, randomly generated piece of surround sound. Tolling is a randomly generated musical score informed by the worldwide birth and death rates. Measured in events per minute (258 births to 108 deaths), the data easily converts to structured musical rhythm. In this piece, reversed bell sounds correspond to death tolls while natural bells indicate a birth. Each speaker plays a unique fraction of the corresponding BPM (beats per minute) such that the sum of all eight speakers sounding together over the course of a minute mimics the tempo of the worldwide birth–death metronome. VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/255851541

TOLLING (WOMB TO TOMB)

_is an experimental piece of music mathematically informed by per-minute worldwide human birth and death rates. Comprising four speakers dedicated to birth (struck bell) and four to death (reversed bell)—with BPMs quartered to sum the data—the eight speakers embody a worldwide human lifecycle metronome. Fluctuating in pitch but tuned to the same musical key, the movement evolves harmonically ad infinitum. 


 

A Lesser Light: Each composition in this series is divided into hundreds of unique voices and elements, which are divided among twenty-four CDs, and distributed equally among the four CD carousels. Set to random/repeat, the CDs orbit freely, playing completely arbitrary combinations of sounds through the installation’s eight speakers—completely rearranging the original composition into an infinite–length, randomly generated piece of surround sound. I have an audio engineer friend who works at National Geographic, editing and culling audio for television promo spots and travel specials. The footage he receives, mostly of wild creatures or exotic landscapes, is typically shot from hundreds of yards away via telescopic lens or aerial drone. The reason he has a job, he says, is because the original audio from the video isn't what viewers expect to hear; the way these scenes actually sound are too unspecific or boring for TV. So his mission is to redo the audio—pulling samples from a massive sound library to arrange the footsteps, growls, chewing, rustling, and far-off red hawk calls that viewers expect—until the footage sounds realistic.

Absence of Anywhere (in Ab Major)

_was inspired by a friend who mixes pre-recorded animal and ambient sound effects into travel features for a major production company. Raw footage of the natural world is unbelievable to the average TV viewer. I ripped hours of sounds from these online productions and tuned them to the key of Ab Major. The result: a wayfaring cacophony making no geographical sense while still intrinsically musical.

A Lesser Light: Each composition in this series is divided into hundreds of unique voices and elements, which are divided among twenty-four CDs, and distributed equally among the four CD carousels. Set to random/repeat, the CDs orbit freely, playing completely arbitrary combinations of sounds through the installation’s eight speakers—completely rearranging the original composition into an infinite–length, randomly generated piece of surround sound. Standing inside the shadow of 2017’s total solar eclipse, I remember daydreaming about the improbability of the event, about how furiously I might be whipping through the galaxy at any given moment, and at that rate, how unlikely it is that I’ll ever be in the same place twice in my entire life. Later I’d watch YouTube users with dim understandings of time zones narrate media photos of the event, searching for flaws and decrying the whole thing as fake news. -------- After the Bible’s first imperative—“Let there be light”—God viewed each day’s toil and “saw that it was good.” Presumably, He, too, had to see it to believe it. —Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses -------- VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/255850458


ANDY, DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS ONE?

_wishes it was the comments section of a livestream. Inspired by forgotten century predictions and Ian Svenonius, this movement is particularly interested in phenomena.

"...We look at Athens and we think, 'Oh, they were so creative and wonderful.' And then you look at the Spartans, and they have very little to show in terms of achievements. But who knows? Maybe they had some incredibly rich oral histories or perhaps they had computers. And they were storing everything on computers, and Athenians were primitive and just made sculptures and stuff, so now we think the Athenians are the geniuses." —Ian Svenonius, 2017

"Google Vice President Vint Cerf warned of a 'forgotten generation, or even a forgotten century' what awaits us when 'bit rot' takes hold and our digital material gets lapped by the new hardware and software racing around it." —Adam Chandler, The Atlantic, 2015