12-tone etudes

[herodotus]

Very nice.

I loved in particular the bare bones presentation of the first one.

It brings me back to the day, so very long ago, when I first looked up 'Serialism' in a musical dictionary, and had the feeling of being drawn ineluctably, fascinated by this obscure yet rigorous form of musical order. Such vague feelings of fascination are to me among the most important of life experiences.

Thanks.

[bobsled]

ie., it's 12-tone but is it atonal?

wheels going round...

atonal in the sense of no tonal center, no fundamental pitch, no tonal cadences. but it's full of repetitive structures (tonal sequences) that are quite audible, even to the 12-tone untrained. this is of course NOT typical 12-tone technique, which is why i'm calling them etudes.

Thank you for that clarification.

...I would like to hear someting like that, dense but which doesn't rely on rhythm

Agreed.

Appreciate muchly these etudes, rachmiel.

[rachmiel]

[note: I don't know Western theory, but I theorize about it a lot]

and therein for me lies a big part of what makes you interesting to read and listen to. this attitude, living and working within a realm foreign to you, can be very energizing and lead to wunderbar idiosyncratic expression.

[rachmiel]

Very nice.

I loved in particular the bare bones presentation of the first one.

It brings me back to the day, so very long ago, when I first looked up 'Serialism' in a musical dictionary, and had the feeling of being drawn ineluctably, fascinated by this obscure yet rigorous form of musical order. Such vague feelings of fascination are to me among the most important of life experiences.

Thanks.

cool. not surprised you liked the bare version; it's very pure. thought made manifest in sound.

[rachmiel]

Appreciate muchly these etudes, rachmiel.

thanks for the support on this. it's great fun for me to go 12-tone. given the response (never expected it!) i might do some REAL 12-tone composition, pieces not etudes.

[stanlea]

So we'll have a 12-tone hit !

[runagate]

"song" makes me think "Time Marches On!"
It's like the music that always seemed to accompany printing presses.
I was surprised but delighted by the bassline flam.

"rows 48" is going to get a lot of listens, the spiraling patterns make my head thrum

How does one make "12-tone chords"? I've never come across the idea behind that.

[rachmiel]

How does one make "12-tone chords"? I've never come across the idea behind that.

just verticalize the row dude.

F# G F G# E A Eb Bb D B Db C

becomes

F#
G
F
G#
E
A
Eb
Bb
D
B
Db
C

or maybe

F#
G
F
G#
E
A

followed by

Eb
Bb
D
B
Db
C

and so on.

[rachmiel]

So we'll have a 12-tone hit ! :)

now there's the oxymoron of the day. ;-)

[vurt]

song makes a lot more sense visually in my ears
might be my piano aversion though

[runagate]

rick, my new guitar playe, Kenny of the Japanese Space Program, and I are attempting to make a "field holler" 12-tone piece in honor of our excitement over your etudes.

Oddly, having made tone rows in solos and the like it had never occured to me to apply this to chords or other song formats except I used to have a slap bass part in a 12-tone whole tone blend

I recall from tableture:
2 12 8 4 6 10 9 1 5 3 11 7

So:
F# E C G# A# D C# F A G D# B

Therefore now we are going to try to make a chordal part, one chord per 3 bass notes, suchly:

F# G# C#

A# F D#

A B E

G C D


And, well, a bump I guess til I figure out more.

[Neptune]

Too bad. My knowledge about music ends with do re mi fa so la si do.

12-tone style sounds really interessting.

[rachmiel]

Too bad. My knowledge about music ends with do re mi fa so la si do.

12-tone style sounds really interessting. :shock:

it's not nearly as complicated as 12-tone afficionados would have you believe. in fact, once you get good and familiar with notated pitches, it's really easy.

[rachmiel]

rick, my new guitar playe, Kenny of the Japanese Space Program, and I are attempting to make a "field holler" 12-tone piece in honor of our excitement over your etudes.

Oddly, having made tone rows in solos and the like it had never occured to me to apply this to chords or other song formats except I used to have a slap bass part in a 12-tone whole tone blend

I recall from tableture:
2 12 8 4 6 10 9 1 5 3 11 7

So:
F# E C G# A# D C# F A G D# B

Therefore now we are going to try to make a chordal part, one chord per 3 bass notes, suchly:

F# G# C#

A# F D#

A B E

G C D


And, well, a bump I guess til I figure out more.

chords sound yummy. i love mixing the very familiar (fifths with seconds) and the very unfamiliar (12-tone rows). post updates.

[jancivil]

the whole Arnold S question of 'can tonal implications be utterly circumvented' -

is begged in this kind of full-row exercise

I hear concentric circles, buzzing like bees around tiny tonics, or spiraling out from the core or nuclei.

beautiful! and really quite very accurate. for me, a row is like a key/mode.

I can relate to that; I tend to think in terms of a bi-key, two six-note cells or whatever, a lot, when I go here. (which is exceedingly rare); or three four-note cells with a sort of skewed symmetry. 12 as a circle, with triangles cut out, like that...

ie., it's 12-tone but is it atonal?

wheels going round...

atonal in the sense of no tonal center, no fundamental pitch, no tonal cadences. but it's full of repetitive structures (tonal sequences) that are quite audible, even to the 12-tone untrained. this is of course NOT typical 12-tone technique, which is why i'm calling them etudes.

mmhmmm..

actually for me, 'tonally' it seems to lie between Scriabin and Rimsky Flight of the Bumblebee;
it doesn't have that severe character of mid-period Arnold S, more like early atonal, kind of still in high romantic dudgeon.

kind of cartoon-y {karlheinz stallings}, but that could be just where I'm at these days

i'd like to see THAT saturday morning cartoon!

I was irritated enough by these sounds to make a 28-second triple canon in a twelve-tone manner;
dint make rows though, I was quick and dirty, as per usual.

I want to hear the stuff you get to beyond the etudes.. 12-tone is not a big fave sound world for me, but the problem of suspending tonality is compelling. (I get weirdly substituted blues turnarounds n stuff, but I don't fight it, I just warp it. No purist I.)
I used these cartoon toy percussions, which guarantees some weirdness in a line

hey rach, you ever learn to sing 12-tone very well?

@cj: the fact that all your groups are perfect fourth chords will give you a consistency, which 12-tone as a style likes to avoid utterly...

Herbie Hancock chords, they are tasty li'l suckers tho