Walking by four-note chords.

This work can be considered a continuation (or a second track of the same album) of one of my previous works "Parsimonious Trichords".
This is the case since in the elaboration of its harmonies I have followed the same line of work but taking one more step in the current work. In the harmony of the two works I have used the Tonnetz. This comes from the German term "Tonnetzwerk" which means network of tones. The prototypical case is the one that is formed by the major and minor chords (of three notes) organized in such a way that those that are contiguous only differ by a single note (with only a semitone or tone of difference) and on this network we can go chaining the chords following different itineraries or paths thus defining the harmonic progression. In the work "Parsimonious Trichords" I used this Tonnetz with three-note chords. The present work tries to go a step further and use four-note chords to define the Tonnetz. To achieve this I have applied the ideas developed by Dmitri Tymoczko in his excellent article "The Generalized Tonnetz" (dmitri.mycpanel.princeton.edu/tonnetzes.pdf). The objective will be the same: to get a network that organizes the chords (in this case of four notes) in such a way that those that are contiguous continue to be differentiated by a single note. In this case, to achieve this, it is necessary to use 12 chords of dominant seventh, 12 chords of half-diminished seventh, 12 chords of minor seventh and 6 chords of French sixth. To achieve To achieve the harmonic progression, on this network of chords I have defined 7 itineraries (one for each part of the work) of the so-called Hamiltonians, which means that they go through all 42 Tonnetz chords once and only once. As can be assumed, the chord succession that is achieved is also very parsimonious in the sense that there is very little variation between a chord and the one that follows it.

The work of creating the Tonnetz of four-note chords and as well as the elaboration of the itineraries I have done it by programming a series of algorithms in Python language.

Regarding the rhythmic aspect of the work, I have used an archetype: the rhythmic "motif of the walker" (half, quarter, quarter) for two reasons: one, which is quite evident, to reinforce the concept of itinerary or path and the other as a small tribute to the recently published book "Paisajes del Romanticismo musical" by the composer and theorist Benet Casablancas since it is one of the many characteristics that he analyzes about the music of the Romantic period.

For all these reasons, the exhaustive title of this work could have been "Walking through the Hamiltonian itineraries of the graph (of minimal variation) of four-note chords." which I have not dared to use for obvious reasons.

Regarding the interpretation, it should be said that it is done through NotePerformer playback engine.
=========================================================
Traducción de esta introducción al castellano:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1daCJQkXXW8_1gj9H7pzbkHWQPANP6T7L/view?usp=sharing

=========================================================
Traducció d'aquesta introducció al català:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DByRKuTZAfrodnbwF_1muzsVB3pV62FY/view?usp=sharing
==========================================================

Walking by four-note chords

Inside a forest it sang

This piece is for a small ensemble of six instruments (flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion). It is inspired by a popular Catalan song that has precisely the same title, in Catalan "A dins d'un bosc cantava". The lyrics of the song explain that "Inside a forest a cuckoo sang with great eagerness, from the top of a towering oak, calling his companion ...".  Thus, the starting musical material has been the melody of this song. Material subjected to various transformations. The most notable is in the melodic field and has been to "chromatize" the initial diatonic melody by incorporating the necessary notes to achieve the basic melodic phrase formed by all the notes of the chromatic scale. This melodic phrase has been the effective base on which the entire work has been built. However, I have not wanted to completely dispense with the initial diatonic melody, but it also appears at different times, but with careful treatment, using the complementary musical elements to achieve a sufficiently coherent result that would overcome the possible contradiction caused by the simultaneous presence of diatonic materials and dodecaphonic materials.

Randomization is another important element that appears in composition. I have tried to present a continuous evolution of the presence of a controlled randomness, obtaining three different phases in the course of the work. The beginning has a more chaotic nature and evolves towards a much more orderly and clear-cut environment to end in the last part that takes up the more uncertain and agitated aspect of the beginning but that definitively overcomes the initial disorder.

With this approach, I wanted to achieve a music that would maintain the naive, innocent and playful character that the initial song has, but trying to make a musical rereading that was more modern and with a few more doses of complexity. All this imbued with a festive and Christmas atmosphere, which would serve to congratulate the Christmas holidays this year, which is the pragmatic reason why I wanted to compose this piece.

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Traducció al català:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1070-eXNJGZ-Kd3d4WDnGVkjw0PAMCYgi/view?usp=sharing

Traducción al castellano:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A9tLdBA_H0Y5-PTGQ0nGve2nm6j_LC7l/view?usp=sharing

A dins d'un bosc cantava

This work has been composed for a brass quintet (horn, 2 trumpets, trombone and tuba) but with the addition of a complementary part of electronic synthesis. 
In the following links there are the PDF files with the theoretical introduction to this piece and also its score:

Explanation in English language:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hja15n07xtgLOH0xPJw4Yrq8o94KjpWj/view?usp=sharing

Explicació en català:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19L0ikzhDGwtVb9LgITglNW2XQShRtWNu/view?usp=sharing

Explicación en castellano:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16FXnr-bdmvRe1rPxRBRKp32Uz5AzY9NA/view?usp=sharing

Score / Partitura:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DW1ACXAtPLe2pAiOScOBAcT1zEEG9Lty/view?usp=sharing

From French Horn To Sinusoid

When I knew that in this year 2022 the centenary of the birth of the composer Iannis Xenakis is being celebrated, I got the impulse of composing a piece inspired by his music. The result has been the composition that I present here.
In the following links you will find the PDF files with the theoretical introduction:

Explanation in English language:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EhCnCpk1_F1pWaDJq_ukEZ3L5T_6Wcsd/view?usp=sharing

Explicació en català:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xQVWTE6_MzS6bGkNNfhte2Jmh0TNL9E1/view?usp=sharing

Explicación en castellano:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PilJZMRNLupHWXM7ktz8nLPT0AASnyJr/view?usp=sharing

Hyperbolic Paraboloid and Xenakis

For a couple of years I have had a line of work open that is the composition of piano pieces whose harmony is based on the "Tonnetz". The one I'm publishing here is the third one that I compose (the other two are "Parsimonious Trichords" and "Walking by four-note chords") and there would still be a fourth to finish this chapter and that I think I will compose soon.
  
In the following links you will find the PDF files with the theoretical presentation of the current piece:

Explanation in English language:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-cz65Td04fTxB_LMbT46GTB8E7dLI7dh/view?usp=sharing

Explicació en català:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16DUwMUx9ScDbrZiATfhkXAMf7P46EjHd/view?usp=sharing

Explicación en castellano:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d0bnSIus1h5v7za1y_oqH8sTv5RG2Hhf/view?usp=sharing

Six-note chords

Here ends my adventure with the Tonnetz! This is the piece that closes the series of four works that I have composed based on it.


In the following links you will find the PDF files, where I explain it in detail with the theoretical presentation of the current piece.

Explanation in English language:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YbM9PspOSuMw0mqS46Eyzq1bCTQJEZUr/view?usp=sharing

Explicación en castellano:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ezUhGhdC13jp7eCEq1SnBujtXhLKryhK/view?usp=sharing

Explicació en català:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H1dI8ZNRwx9iVITabbns0v4bAok1bbgN/view?usp=sharing

I have also created an album where I have gathered the 5 pieces that I have composed following the pattern of the Tonnetz. Each of the first four pieces (all of them for piano) follow the scheme of a different Tonnetz, what differentiates each one of them is the certain number of notes that their chords have. The pieces are presented ordered according to this number of notes that their chords have: 2, 3, 4, 6 notes respectively. In the fifth piece (which is orchestral) the four Tonnetz intervene successively in their different parts.

https://soundcloud.com/ramon-capsada-blanch/sets/the-4-tonnetz-of-the-chromatic

Fifth chords chained with common notes

SONGS OF HOPE FOR A NEW REALITY.

This work consists of three songs.
 
The first song is for a baritone voice and represents that it is sung by a character who is a journalist and tries to give an overview of the many global crises and conflicts that are currently haunting us and causing "perplexity in an uncertain world".

The second song, for a contralto voice, represents that it is the reply given by a female character who is an anthropologist, to the previous journalist arguing that we can only save ourselves if we start from approaches based on ethics and anthropology to build a "critical conscience of our species" that allows us to create a new global reality where all human beings have a dignified and comfortable life.

The third song is a fugue for four voices (for soprano, alto, tenor and bass) and represents the well- meaning people who have honestly understood what the situation is: it is only possible to overcome this "perplexity in an uncertain world, creating new global reality for all.

At the end of this introduction I attach a PDF with the lyrics of the three songs. I put the original version in English and also its translation into Spanish.

The music has an initial inspiration in what we could call musical styles of modern popular music, but with the aim of reaching a final composition of a more abstract and artistic nature. Regarding the musical production, as is usual in my works, the score of the different musical parts is performed by computer software, specifically in the instrumental parts I have used the synthesizer (granular and spectral) called Padshop 2 and also samplers from the VSL (Vienna Symphonic Library) that, although in this library the instruments have acoustic timbre, I have given them an electronic music treatment. But the most peculiar part is the one corresponding to the voices in which I have used the VOCALOID 6 software that has a singing synthesis technology that produces singing voices that are very realistic and with the ability to articulate words and that has been, initially , developed to sing in the Japanese and English languages.

As for the textual content of the lyrics of the songs, I have written it myself and I wanted it to start from the current global reality and to have, as far as possible, a projection in the general interest. I have been inspired by various texts that I have read lately and, especially, the book "El porvenir de la humanidad”  written by Eudald Carbonell i Roura, a Catalan archaeologist and anthropologist who has a long and important professional career.


Lyrics of the three songs    /    Letras de las tres canciones:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1llYNK9VUjN-zuf9jmWaPbnqsQmExWQhR/view?usp=drive_link	



Esta introducción en castellano:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10da1T3vm8U3H2Eh0AgOBbAwz27Iv4WZp/view?usp=sharing

Aquesta introducció en català:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Uaq06MVT-_6ovqsne6KgW-iBGZcT58KZ/view?usp=sharing

Songs of hope for a new reality

"Song of the Open Road" is a poem by Walt Whitman from his 1856 collection “Leaves of Grass”. It has 15 sections, each with 3-4 stanzas. For the lyrics of the song that I have composed, I have chosen the most famous of these sections, which is the first. At the end of this introduction I have attached the lyrics of this section.

The intention has been to compose a small song to continue delving into the use of the singing voice synthesis software, Vocaloid. Since this software only sings in the English language (which is not one of my usual languages) I thought that it might be interesting to use a poem by an author of that language as a text and I decided on this American poet.

On the other hand, the most important issue in the harmonic-melodic aspect has been that I have considered it as an exercise in Modal Harmony. I have used a different mode for each of the stanzas of the poem and in this order: Phrygian, Dorian, Mixolydian and Lydian. It is an order that fulfills the elementary principle of going from less to more musical "brightness." I have also dispensed with the Ionian and Aeolian modes to get away from the tonal environment and enhance the modal color. In the use of each of these modes I have introduced a "strange" note, that is, it does not belong to the scale of the mode. In all cases this note is the one that corresponds to a semitone lower than the base note of the scale of the mode; it is also located in the last position of the melody of each stanza, closing it and coincides with the first note of the following stanza, but in this case it is not strange, on the contrary, it coincides with the characteristic note of the new mode. This is the way the different modes are chained together.

I attach the lyrics of the poem to facilitate your understanding: 


Song of the Open Road

Afoot and light hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)




Esta introducción en castellano:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OqX5rUbuEkHBFP8MlUnpJfH2LaJIynP9/view?usp=sharing

Aquesta introducció en català:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fKxXa2Ms5qZES9MdmYOnRT3894_cdC2r/view?usp=sharing

Song Of The Open Road

This composition is a choral chant for 6 voices with post-tonal music, lyrics that reflect on the passage of time and interpretation made using voice synthesis software.

A fairly detailed introduction to this work can be read at the following links:

Introduction in English:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hz2Nwfho2emnLZwwSW0o-qY9jVeGZZJv/view?usp=sharing

Introducción en castellano:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NtbVN6-e5ovCm4dyx7QFSdxxvducTGdI/view?usp=sharing

Introducció en català:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e7Gz2a1LF_WfVpjjg8zg1yBzJMxQq-Mx/view?usp=sharing

MOLTS ANYS !    -.-Cor a 6 veus-.-

This music is the soundtrack to the film "L'aranya teixeix llum" (The Spider Weaves the Light).

It is therefore advisable to watch the film directly on YouTube, as the images and music complement each other, forming a superior whole (unfortunately, SoundCloud does not allow films), so it is better to watch the film than just the music:

https://youtu.be/qCwEE9YSpgE?si=YLXvYaRxxbW1Uosd

This is a locally produced film centered on the Ripoll River, a small river that runs through the outskirts of Sabadell, a city near Barcelona (Spain). It is a short film (13') with a documentary approach but with a "artistic" style. We made it together with Nativitat Ayala and it is based on a poetic text written by her (with the same name as the film). She was primarily responsible for the plot idea and the script. I was in charge of the technical aspects (filming and editing) and, of course, also the musical composition.

The overall intention of this film was to highlight this river and its natural and wild environment, which is still preserved today and is currently in danger given the latest proposals to modify its industrial and tertiary uses by the City Council (which are not at all appreciated by most of the opposition and citizen movements).

Also, in the first part of the film, we sought to emphasize that the harsh conditions that the working women endured in the warehouses of the old factories of the last century are also part of the history of this river.

Thus, in this first part, we sought to create, both with the images and the music, a more somber and despondent atmosphere, which gradually transitions to greater luminosity and serenity, eventually achieving, in the final section, a liberating effect by showing that the natural and wild nature of the river ultimately prevails (at least for the time being). And all of this using a "poetic-artistic language" and modest and simple technical means.

Below are two PDF files, in English and Spanish, that explain the characteristics of the music:

In English:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v3DmQEQuOaz4SPXjXkHfyO_RhxSJiIVr/view?usp=sharing

En español:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nHrU8rSyndgxS0izdofu8tQoiJcrJ_Xs/view?usp=sharing



The film's soundtrack

It is a polyphonic song composed as an elegy, lament, or mourning song for friends who have recently passed away.

 Below is a detailed explanation of the work in three languages:

Explanation in English:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wAm8l7SfAR4KnIazIQnO0Qo-mJubp7Cd/view?usp=sharing

Explicación en castellano:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IDckYDZfVcle5LCI_MMH3U90U5DAG7qa/view?usp=sharing

Explicació en català.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13I4_Jx1k0lBJRXdamI278gV8OAHdY1bK/view?usp=sharing

Com la cérvola deleix l’aigua

Aquesta nadala és la més universal.
Malgrat la pessimista situació del món actual,
que els valors del Nadal,
com l’amor, l’altruisme, la solidaritat i la pau,
ens donin esperança de que 
els principis de l’humanisme racionalista
vagin predominant per aconseguir 
un mon cada vegada mes just. 

Tingueu tots unes festes felices i plenes d’esperança!

(NB: Tant la música com la lletra les he creades "manualment" sense IA. La interpretació tant de les veus com dels instruments són fetes amb programari d’ordinador.)





In English:

Christmas, Hope, and Humanism
=========================
“Silent night, holy night
All is calm and all is bright
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child
. . .
. . . “

This Christmas carol is the most universal.

Despite the current pessimistic state of the world,
may the values of Christmas,
such as love, altruism, solidarity, and peace,
give us hope that
the principles of rationalist humanism
will gradually prevail, leading to
an increasingly just world.

May you all have a happy and hopeful holiday season!

(NB: I created both the music and lyrics "manually", without AI. The vocals and instruments were performed using computer software.)


En Castellano:

Navidad, esperanza y humanismo
=========================
“Noche de paz, 
noche de amor, 
todo duerme alrededor,
. . .
. . .”

Este villancico es el más universal.
Pese a la pesimista situación del mundo actual,
que los valores de la Navidad,
como el amor, el altruismo, la solidaridad y la paz,
nos den esperanza de que
los principios del humanismo racionalista
vayan predominando para conseguir
un mundo cada vez más justo.

¡Que tengáis todos unas fiestas felices y llenas de esperanza!

(NB: Tanto la música como la letra las he creado "manualmente" sin IA. La interpretación tanto de las voces como de los instrumentos están hechas con software de ordenador.)

Nadal, esperança i humanisme

This is a piece for piano based on Neo-Riemannian theory. It is a MIDI version performed by a VST piano from the Vienna Symphonic Library. You can also hear a real version played by Edward Cohen, a pianist from Scotland: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn0t5N1mXdA

In the following links there are the PDF files with the explanation of what the fundamentals of this piece are:

Explanation in English language:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Le66JNBocRH9bBr3d-mRrqqa-uS4nYz4/view?usp=sharing

Explanation in Spanish language:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t1-xbA49NjBk-WL9LEtPrqxhYZs67-Ko/view?usp=sharing

Explanation in Catalan language:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GR9_w7Lw_8CjItXDzzLjpKw_Stx7xaoj/view?usp=sharing

Parsimonious Trichords

With respect to form, this piece follows the line of work started in my previous work "Parsimonious Chords", which was based on the "Tonnetz" graph formed by the notes of the major and minor triads. The current work is based on the "generalized Tonnetz" that includes the previous Tonnetz but also other similar graphs defined in spaces formed by chords of any number of notes. This concept is precisely defined by Dmitri Tymoczko in his excellent article "The Generalized Tonnetz" (https://dmitri.mycpanel.princeton.edu/tonnetzes.pdf). In my specific case I have worked with four Tonnetz: those formed by chords of two, three, four and six notes. In each of them I have used Hamiltonian paths (those that visit all the chords of the graph only once) to define the harmony and the conduction of voices.

With respect to the expressive character, this work is influenced by the harshness of the health crisis that the world is experiencing and also by the atmosphere of the Christmas dates in which it was written.

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Perdidos por caminos de espacios de acordes

En cuanto a la forma, esta pieza sigue la línea de trabajo iniciada en mi anterior obra "Parsomonious Chords", que estaba basada en el grafo "Tonnetz" formado por las notas de las tríadas mayores y menores. La obra actual está basada en el "Tonnetz generalizado" que incluye al anterior Tonnetz pero también otros grafos similares  definidos en espacios formados por acordes de un número cualquiera de notas. Este concepto lo define con precisión Dmitri Tymoczko en su excelente artículo "The Generalized Tonnetz" (https://dmitri.mycpanel.princeton.edu/tonnetzes.pdf). En mi caso concreto he trabajado con cuatro Tonnetz: los formados por acordes de dos, tres, cuatro y seis notas. En cada uno de ellos he utilizado caminos hamiltonianos (aquellos que visita todos los acordes del grafo una sola vez) para definir la harmonía y la conducción de voces. 

En cuanto al carácter expresivo, esta obra está influenciada por la dureza de la crisis sanitaria que el mundo está viviendo i también por el ambiente de las fechas navideñas en la que ha sido escrita.

Lost on paths of chord spaces

A piece of music is a mentally constructed entity, of which scores and performances are partial representations by which the piece is transmitted.
(Fred Lerdahl & Ray Jackendoff)

Any tone can succeed any other tone, any tone can sound simultaneously with any other tone or tones, and any group of tones can be followed by any other group of tones, just as any degree of tension  or nuance can occur in any medium under any kind of stress or duration. Successful projection will depend upon the contextual and formal conditions that prevail, and upon the skill and soul of the composer.
(Vincent Persichetti)

Music is a system of signs composed of complex forms which may be represented by physical sounds, and which in this way mediate between mental and psychic contents. To deal with such a system, semiotics are naturally evoked. To describe these forms, mathematics is the adequate language. To represent these forms on the physical level, physics are indispensable. And to understand the psychic contents, psychology is the predestined science.
(Guerino Mazzola)

Ramon Capsada Blanch

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