Work for oboe and percussion
Michael Lawlor: oboe & percussion
Catherine Lawlor: percussion

Procella aevi primaevi

An exploration of expanded and contracted harmonic series and a progression from dissonance to consonance.

Nebula - short version

The first movement of a set of four sonatas and three interludes for violin and piano, performed by Catherine Lawlor (violin) and Abram Korsunsky (piano) in LeFrak Hall, Queen's College, New York.
Sonatas & Interludes is an exploration of what I call polyoctave modes.  Polyoctave modes are modes or scales that do not repeat after one octave, but at some multiple of octaves.  So far, I have created many of these, from two octaves to 19 octaves.  In Sonatas & Interludes I use modes of two, three, five, seven and eleven octaves.  Each mode has its own characteristic harmony and melody, which provides a harmonic unity to the overall sound world of each mode.  Over the complete ambitus of a mode the total chromatic exists, although within a narrow range, not all chromatic pitches will be available; however, for each mode there are several transpositions, as in the manner of Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition, allowing freedom of choice to create highly chromatic music.  By choosing appropriate modes and transpositions, and even combining two modes at the same time, it is possible to create a varied range of harmonic and melodic material, from simple triadic harmony to 12-tone and serial music.
There are four single-movement sonatas, with an interlude between each, resulting in seven movements in total.  In each sonata the musical ideas are explored through a pair of polyoctave modes, contrasting with the keys of traditional sonata form.  The interludes combine the modes of the preceding and following sonatas.  However, “sonata” here is more akin with the renaissance canzona via the early baroque sonata rather than the later, classical form.
The first sonata uses the two-octave and three-octave modes.  The violin and piano are always in the same transposition of the same mode and the melodic and harmonic material is built from groups of fourths, overlapping by seconds with occasional use of scale passages to strongly highlight the character of the mode.  The contrasting material is based on expanding intervals: second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth, but always within the mode.  Because of the nature of the modes, fourths can be diminished as well as perfect and augmented; sevenths (contiguous fourths) can also be diminished and may appear to be sixths.

Sonatas & Interludes - Sonata 1

Stochastics uses interactions of difference tones and interference patterns generated from the interaction of frequency modulation.  The fundamentals are mainly below the threshold of human hearing and so what is heard is the result of interactions between higher harmonics.

Musica verisimilitudinis II - Stochastics

Tintinnabula is based on the same patch as Nocturne but uses different parameters, making the sound of small, tinkling bells.

Musica verisimilitudinis III - Tintinnabula

Harmonice uses tones from the harmonic series that fade in and out, creating a gentle, harmonious cloud.  It blurs the boundaries between harmony and tone-colour.  Though primarily consonant, this consonance can be disrupted by transitions to stretched and compressed harmonic series, the use of frequency modulation and the introduction of beats.  The work begins with dissonance: the result of expanding and compressing the harmonic series.  It then settles down to a single harmonic series (built on A’) and then progresses through a series of chords built from harmonics of the harmonics of the pitch class of A, finishing with a perfect cadence.  From this point, the harmonic series built on the pitch class A is distorted using frequency modulation and beats, then settles to rest with one final short flourish of dissonance before gradually fading away.

Musica verisimilitudinis IV - Harmonice

Nocturne evokes a cave at night, echoing with insects and dripping water.

Michael Lawlor 5