CHRISTOPHER OTTO

Absolessaged Backly

for cello + sine tones

for Lester St. Louis

score

sine tones

The drone is constructed out of different layers of subharmonics of G = 196 Hz. (A = 441 Hz). The overtone chords built on these subharmonic fundamentals are swelling in and out at different times. The timecode on the left of each line of the score indicates the time at which the chord corresponding to the boxed number is reaching its peak.

The boxed numbers indicate the subharmonic of 196 Hz, ranging from 4 (196 Hz / 4 = 49 Hz) to 140 (196 Hz / 140 = 1.4 Hz).

On each line is a set of available melodic dyads, representing superparticular ratios in that harmonic series. (Superparticular ratios are those in which the numerator is 1 greater than the denominator.)

Roughly within the timecodes marked, I would like you to explore 1 or more of the dyads in that line. The idea is to learn to hear each interval melodically, perhaps by alternating between the 2 notes of a pair at different speeds.

In some sections you'd probably only do 1 or 2 intervals, and in others you might explore several.

I would encourage you to use common tones to transition between sections. I haven't marked them in this iteration of the score, but you might want to take note of the possibilities.

In general I'm interested to know how possible it is to hear these notes and intervals in relation to the drone. I imagine that the mix of the drone will have a significant effect on how well you can pick out the pitches, so we can work that out together, or you can re-mix it in a way that works better.

If you want to practice the notes without the drone, with a tuner, you can multiply the fraction above the note by 196 Hz to get the frequency of the note.

These are really just materials for practicing JI intervals. I'm very open about the form of the actual performance. You can certainly focus on a subset of these dyads, and also excerpt the 30-minute duration I've given you (which is actually just 1/14 of the whole temporal structure). 2:00 through 17:00 could be a good chunk to do.