This track is from the album Night Flower and is available for purchase on CD Baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/irinamikhailova

Mori Moma Remix by Irina Mikhailova, B.Smiley, Graham Wood

La fragile espérance de l'athée

Title:
Harmonic Three

Dates:
25-Jan-2024 (inception), 28-Jan-2024 (finalised), 3-Feb-2024 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund
Film scanning by Zachary Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/harmonic-three
and a more detailed description.

Description:
Inspired from my earlier work 24-Jun-2023, "Tuning Scale Based Upon 1st Three Octaves of the Harmonic Series", where I constructed a Just Intonation (JI) scale based upon the first three octaves of the Harmonic Series, which were then octave reduced, so the note range was kept within one octave. The constraint I set myself here as that any JI frequency ratio could only be divided multiples of powers of two and only over octaves 0, 1 2 and 3. This produced nine notes within one octave range. Early harmony experiments produced a series of triads named to the nearest 12EDO chord names, an exploration of what might be possible harmonically. This tuning was then mapped to the Ableton Push2 8x8 note pads, ascending scale notes (scale divisions) in the horizontal direction, then repeated for each row vertically ascending in octaves.

In the following year, on the 23-Jan-2024 the former scale was extended to a two dimensional JI lattice. The original provided the tuning vector for the horizontal direction, each note on the lower row, providing the reference frequency to take the same  tuning vector applied vertically. So this provided an isomorphic keyboard layout in that any chord using notes in one column would have the same harmonic content if shifted in the horizontal direction. So not fully isomorphic, since if the chord notes appear in different columns, shifts in the horizontal direction will alter the harmonic content, but this can be used for effect and is a pleasant feature of JI tunings typical of harmonic series tuning.

Then it was a case of creating a basic harmony track to improvise over and discover what can be done with this tuning and this two dimensional tuning lattice. The music production was entirely performed on the Push2, recorded and edited using Ableton Live.

My Facebook page at:
https:/www.facebook.com/norman.freund.545
has high resolution images of the score,
plus the music and score has been released on my YouTube account at:
https://youtu.be/EnZXjRC6U4E

The composition is divided into three sections. The master time signature is 4/4. The first section slowly moving chords, introducing the listener to the more consonant harmony. Section two, has a change in mood, the harmony becomes more dissonant and the percussion section rhythm chaotic. Section two percussion used poly meter of  4/4, 11/8, 13/4 and 21/16 . A new instrument is introduced, a reverberating pipe or didgeridoo like sound, who's note choice is rather simple, more of a drone but interest is added through modulations of timbre, much like what didgeridoo players do. Imagine yourself one the edge of a huge canyon, as the dissonant harmonies build up, with reminders from the percussion section not to go further. The release comes in section three, the visitor to the canyon finds more stable footing, here is where the percussion section is put to the forefront and the string sections give a quiet backing harmony. The piece ends with 1/1 5/4 65/32 frequency ratio JI chord (C5 chord with some spice added), harmonious and settling.

Harmonic Three

Voices From the Eccentriphon

Septentrion

SETM

Moshlatch

Eccentriphonica

Of Ancient Futures Past

The Expanding Universe

The Unquestioned Answer

Kelly Lee Owens

Welcome to my place of musical experiments and my endless journey of exploring new sound textures, rhythms and melodic ideas. I am a multi-instrumentalist coming from a background of having actively played, harmonica, recorder, piano, organ, clarinet, tin whistle, pan pipes, guitar, violin, Shakuhachi, jaw harp, didgeridoo and accordion. My genre is mostly a fusion of Jazz and Soundscape, however I often seek inspiration from a wide variety of music, Celtic, Rock, Heavy Metal, Classical, Folk, Micro-tonal, just to name a few. I also build my own instruments, various Shakuhachi using them either directly in recordings or sample the sounds to incorporate in pitch shifting tools in Ableton Live. I often set myself a music challenge, taking every day sounds not considered musical, sampling, transforming and moulding them into a virtual musical instrument. Experimenting with evolving polymeters is a favourite feature of my works. I have been classically trained but soon ventured into free improvisation, which is my happy place.

I am based on the South Island of New Zealand, enjoying the great outdoors there. I often take inspiration from this for my music and associated cover art.

I have a no cover’s policy, all my works being original compositions, the only exception would be the odd jazz interpretation of a Bach piece from the Baroque era. My percussion sections do not use any artificial intelligence drum machines, nor do I use auto tuners for my violin playing. Paid likes and plays — none of that either. 

I also participate in musical collaborations, from accepting sound samples to see what I can do with them, to instrumental collaborations. Send me a message if interested.

Please join me on this wonderful journey of music exploration.

Harmonic Three

Norman Freund

Related tracks