Kafka, Postmortem is based on Kafka’s story titled “The Judgment.” At the end of the story, the protagonist committed suicide after his father condemned him to death by drowning (“And therefore take note: I sentence you now to death by drowning!”). The absurdity!⁠⁠ Who would drown themselves right after hearing such a literal condemnation? The story is strange without even adding elements of magical realism or surrealism; Kafka simply creates the story in a realistic manner, but with characters acting strangely, distant from how human usually acts. In the spirit of this strangeness, I asked Redian Pragina Jali to create a Javanese translation of the story’s ending. By working with a Javanese translation of this unusual text, I intend to turn the language into a strange unto itself. I sang this text with a style in between sulukan, Debussy’s Pelleas & Melisande, and kargyraa: recitative after recitative, and at several moments, accompanied by a syntactical breakdown into harsh noise (kargyraa+rebab overpressure+electronic distortion). While writing the vocal part, I was inspired by the idea of asemic writing⁠—a kind of writing in that represents grammatical breakdown⁠—and by Kristeva’s notion of the semiotic/the symbolic⁠—the semiotic refers to rhythm and tone, and the symbolic refers to grammar and syntax⁠—, where noise would function as the breaking point of the symbolic to the semiotic. I attempt to push forward the experiments that we did with our previous piece; here, we utilized four new gendèrs, which in total would form a 36-tone tuning system (two of the gendèr do not have octave repetition). The electronic materials are sourced from field recordings as well as from Denis Smalley’s Base Metals—I intend this to be an homage to the first piece that gave me a deep understanding of the power behind bell’s timbre.

Text
English: 
His father said pityingly, in an offhand manner: “I suppose you wanted to say that sooner. But now it doesn’t matter.” And in a louder voice: “So now you know what else there was in the world besides yourself, till now you’ve known only about yourself! An innocent child, yes, that you were, truly, but still more truly have you been a devilish human being!—And therefore take note: I sentence you now to death by drowning!”
...
He swung himself over, like the distinguished gymnast he had once been in his youth, to his parents’ pride. With weakening grip he was still holding on when he spied between the railings a motor bus coming which would easily cover the noise of his fall, called in a low voice: “Dear parents, I have always loved you, all the same,” and let himself drop.

Javanese: 
Bapakke kandha karo memělas, swarane ngěmu rasa pasrah, “Tak kira yen kowe bakale ngandhani luwih cěpět. Ning, arěpa saiki ya ora dadi pěrkara.” Swarane sangsaya bantěr: “Dadi saiki kowe ngěrti apa maneh ing donya iki kajaba mung dhapurmu dhewe, tekan sěprene mung ngěrti pěrkara dhapurmu tok! Kowe bocah sing lugu, ya, pancen běněr kuwi sipatmu sing biyěn, nanging luwih běněr yen kowe saiki pancene bocah kěparat! Saiki gatekna, kowe tak ukum pati, tak blěběgke urip-uripan!” 
...
Georg gěgeyongan kaya dene atlit, mempěr kayata sing tahu dilakoni Georg nom-nomane biyen, kabeh mau dilakoni kanggo nuwuhake rasa mongkog wong tuwane. Gěgěmane sangsaya suwe sangsaya suda dayane, ing wěktu kuwi uga dheweke nyawang bus sing arěp liwat, swarane kaprungu guměděr, swarane bisa dadi srana anyamarake tibaning si Georg. Dheweke kandha nganggo swarane sing gěrok, “Pake, Bune, aku tětěp trěsna karo Panjěněngan kabeh. Salawase!”, Georg banjur nglalu nibakake dhiri. 


Composer: Dion Nataraja

Performer:
Sandikala Ensemble
Yustiawan Paradigma Umar (gendèr)
Suseno Setyo Wibowo (gendèr)
Roni Driyastoto (rebab)
Mustika Garis Sejati (rebab)
Michael Wimberly (percussion)
Dion Nataraja (voice and electronics)

Translator (to Javanese): Redian Pragina Jali

Producer: Yustiawan Paradigma Umar

Mixing & mastering: Luke Taylor

Kafka, Postmortem

Sounds Ineffable sets a text from the Therigatha, a collection of Pali language verses of early female Buddhists. The sounds of the singer are simultaneously stretched out by real time computer processing, creating different copies of the sound progressing at different rates. This process does not include any pre-recorded singing and results not in a delay exactly, but in what would have been called in the European Middle Ages a mensuration canon -- a piece being combined with itself at different speeds. These tempos are related to the original sound by the same integer proportions used in the tuning of the notes, creating resonances both in time, as the sung lines converge and diverge, and in pitch, forming just harmonies with each other. The words, though, dissolve in the paradox of sensory perceptions leading to the insensible.

Sound Ineffable

A performance of James Tenney's graphic score "A Rose Is A Rose Is A Round" by 10 Alter/Ego VSTs (real-time singing synthesizer from Plogue)

A Rose Is A Rose Is A Round

An 11-limit Just Intonation relaxing/hypnotic track

Horizons Of Bliss

2/2/2017 John Schneider hosts KPFK Global Village, a memorial to microtonal scale designer Ervin Wilson.  Interview with Stephen James Taylor, Gary David, Chuck Jonkey, Jose Garcia, Marcus Hobbs, Marsha Mann; virtually attending Kraig Grady and Terumi Narushimi.

Erv Wilson Memorial KPFK Feb_2_2017

Sid Louis - Hurting (Demo)

This piece was written for the Lou Harrison Centennial celebration in 2017. Commissioned by Thingamajigs. Pipa soloist is Sophia Shen

Zephyros

Clarice Jensen performs Michael Harrison's Cello Constellations
Cello Constellations was commissioned by cellist Clarice Jensen 
The work is scored for solo cello with 21 pre-recorded cellos and sine tones
Audio recording by Dan Bora
"For This From That Will Be Filled" album on Miasmah: bit.ly/ForThisAlbum 

Copyright 2018 Michael Harrison Music

Michael Harrison: https://www.michaelharrison.com/
Clarice Jensen: https://www.claricejensen.com/
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Cello Constellations is comprised of five constellations and eight harmonic cascades of complex just intonation harmonies that gradually evolve over time. The frequency relationships between each tone are perfectly tuned in whole number proportions. These same proportions are used to determine the timing and envelopes (fade in, sustain, and fade out) of each note, resulting in an organic relationship between pitch, rhythm and duration. I am calling this compositional technique “Integrated Proportionality.” Although related to the concept of Total Serialism, Integrated Proportionality is fundamentally different in that the interrelationships of musical components are derived from the actual frequencies of the notes, rather than abstract correlations with a 12-tone row or set of pitches.

The rhythmic pulsations heard in the sine tones (and later magnified with repeated notes in the cellos) are the result of interference patterns perceived by the brain as acoustical beats. When we hear two sounds of slightly different frequencies, an acoustical beat is perceived as a periodic variation in volume whose rate is the difference of the two frequencies.

Cello Constellations was composed using math and text-based computer programming. The data was then organized into spreadsheets and used to create a more traditional score with the just intonation ratios and exact frequency specified in Hertz above each note. All of the tones were divided between the cellos and sine tones to create an integrated timbre.

--Michael Harrison

Cello Constellations

John Somebody, Part I

We may never know what happened at the colony. The artifacts of the event are garbled and unclear, pieces of a puzzle too fragmented to put together. But what is known is that somehow the phenomenon seemed subterranean.

Sound Ineffable

bill_alves

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