Shortly after burial, Herr Haydn's head was stolen by an ambitious, perhaps somewhat too earnest phrenologist (and suspected alchemist). So Herr Haydn's head was missing for quite some time.

Some years later, the body was to be moved. The head of course was found to be missing. When pressed for the skull, our dear phrenologist (apparently the only obvious suspect in the crime), presented a false skull (source unknown) for internment with Herr Haydn's body. Herr Haydn's true skull was instead kept in a decorated wooden box, and passed down through the generations.

In 1895, the true skull of Haydn was finally returned. And buried with the rest of him. The substitute skull (source still unknown) was left in the grave, alongside the proper one.

And that is the story of how Herr Haydn ended up with two skulls in his grave.

Downloaded the source, converted that to 16-bit wav.

Permutated into 8 distinct sounds. Used these to make a minimal techno piece (Ableton Live)
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Disquiet Junto Project 0082: Minimal Haydn

This week’s project is another in a series of explorations of the concept of genre as a constraint. (The “downtempo” exercise went well several weeks ago, project 79, and this is another in that mode.) The genre this time is “minimal techno.” The source material is from another genre entirely: “classical,” specifically chamber music in the form of a string quartet. The goal of this project is to derive elements from the source material in the service of a track that would fit in the prescribed genre.

These are the steps:

Step 1: Download the MP3 track at the following URL. The track is the third movement of Franz Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major:

http://goo.gl/7MMHRA

Step 2: Listen through the full 1:55 of the track, noting the time codes of source elements that could lend themselves to a minimal techno track. Aim for roughly between three and six.

Step 3: Extract the handful of elements that you located in Step 2.

Step 4: Compose and record an original track that you feel conforms to the genre of minimal techno, using only the elements from Step 3. You can manipulate them in any way you choose, though at some point in the track they should each be somewhat recognizable from the source material. You cannot add any other sounds.

The source Haydn audio is from:
http://goo.gl/7MMHRA

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

the curious case of herr haydn's head [disquiet0082-minimalhaydn]

the bell mechanical