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Falling by SmokeyVW [Email]
Genre: Classical

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SONG STATS:
Hits: 740
Comments: 24
Votes:
Plays: 63
Last Played: Nov 19, 2008 - 10:56:09 AM
Downloads: 37
Fans: 6
Uploaded: Nov 15, 2007 - 07:55:35 PM
Last Updated: Sep 13, 2008 - 11:28:03 AM
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Keywords:
endless descent (2)
Description:
album: Vision Quest
track 1: 3:20 Vision Quest
track 2: 4:49 Falling
track 3: 7:28 Nothing
track 4: 1:11 Snow Squall
track 5: 4:22 We Lost Touch
track 6: 1:36 Time For Peace
track 7: 8:04 Oblate Oblivion
track 8: 8:23 Little Orb
track 9: 12:54 Tripping
track 10: 6:35 Soaring The Thermals
track 11: 4:10 People (Running Through My Mind)
...more albums...

Song Description

****************************************
U P D A T E
i reworked the chord progression and the modulation scheme of this song into something entirely different. but it's the same chords believe it or not!
http://www.macjams.com/song/37195
****************************************

It might be best to listen before reading all this crazy stuff.

rather mathematical this one

it started with the title

that led to the idea of an endlessly descending 12-tone scale. the scale starts at Ab

that led to a chord progression with a 10 beat length. the chords are: E G B C# E B Asus4 A C G

each time the chords repeat they start 2 half-steps up from before

picked out the notes from the chords that persisted for 2 or 3 beats as the primary notes for the main melody line

built a 20 beat melody constrained to only using notes directly from the chords, and being sure to not reuse notes from the first half in the second half (important in a moment)

built a second 10 beat melody made up of the left-over notes from the chords not used by either the first or second half of the 20 beat melody

then arranging proceeded from these elements

the whole song is built of repeated playing of the 10 beat cycle. every 6 times around is 60 beats. the endless scale (12 beats) fits in there exactly 5 times

started with piano playing portions of the chords building to playing them fully

then the flute plays the 10 beat melody through a full-circle of 5 repeats

the percussion comes in to help the listener stay oriented as more elements enter (also, the gong introduces each of the changes coming up)

an oboe then echoes the full-circle

next, the french horns play the 20 beat melody for a full-circle

10 beats into the second repeat of the full-circle, a second section of horns come in again suitably modulated (up 2)

the melody is a round due to its construction from notes only from the chords, and is a counterpoint of the 10 beat melody as well

then the voices sing the chords for a full-circle

finally, the endless scale slowly fades in, as all the rest fall away

and the endless scale fades out

This chart might help clear things up, or else muddy the waters further?



This is like a GarageBand note editor, low pitches towards the bottom, high pitches towards the top, time goes left to right. The blue blocks show each repeat of the chord progression.
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I have no idea &mdash 11/15/07 - 09:06:17 PM
how you do this math/music, Bill, but it's fascinating! The title and art are perfect for the feeling of this.

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. &mdash 11/22/07 - 09:59:40 PM
lots of the music experiments i've tried just sort of happen to me. i was lucky enough in this case to remember the sequence of events and write them down before i forgot.

you would not believe how many pictures of "falling man" i sifted through to find this one. the famous WTC falling man picture came up dozens of times - and there is no way i wanted to use it, since this song was not meant to imply anything about that event at all. i eventually found an image and processed the heck out of it to form the silhouette image shown here...

thanks

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This is &mdash 11/16/07 - 02:28:01 AM
like a musical version of an Escher drawing. Stunning.
Cheers
Len



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. &mdash 11/22/07 - 09:50:22 PM
your comment inspired me to make a diagram of the chord structure. i added it to the description. i dunno if it makes any sense to anyone, but it is accurate...

thanks!

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Wow &mdash 11/16/07 - 06:04:24 AM
I'm impress my friend what a fantastic work you have done with this song.
KUDOS. Bro.

Peace, Love & Respect
----
Kenta

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. &mdash 11/22/07 - 10:03:02 PM
glad that you enjoyed it.

thanks Skean - i mean, Kenta.

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The new Drapehs? &mdash 11/16/07 - 01:59:35 PM
Very cool experiment that you orchestrated nicely. Early on, since it was a bit sparse, and because it was atonal (I'm guessing, since it is a chromatic scale sequence?) it took me a bit to get my bearings, but as it went on, and presumably because of added harmonies and my slow grasping at the patterns, it filled out and by the end was quite entrancing, in a strange way. So this brings me to think of "Shepards Tones" (http://www.cs.ubc.ca/nest/imager/contributions/flinn/Illusions/ST/st.html), which I remember reading about/hearing a decade or so ago, which is usually played ASCENDING... maybe you already knew of this work, but if not, I have successfully offered you a little trivia in return finally! :-) You've created a very intriguing musical experiment that works in its own right as a bit more than a curiosity, but a rather mesmerizing "aural descent" (hmm... should you mark this as explicit? smirk )
ttfn,
Drakonis

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Shepard's Tones &mdash 11/22/07 - 09:44:30 PM
thanks Drakonis for the Shepard's link - i had forgotten the name, but not the concept. i think i heard it on a flexible disk (the kind with grooves in it!) from a book from the MIT Journal of Electronic Music, or else something published by IRCAM... the link you provided sounds very much like that old flexi-disc. I think that may have been 30 years ago. *gasp*

here i approximated Shepard's Tones by playing several parallel octaves on the piano and adjusting the velocity to fade in from the upper tones and fade out from the lower tones.

but i needed to make the loop span two repetitions (24 tones) and randomized the velocities a little - otherwise after a few repeats you could hear it jump back up once per octave - the exact point depending on what speakers you listened with.

the longer loop and randomness helps disguise the illusion long enough for this song, but with longer listening, the jump effect re-appears. this reminds me of how astounding human hearing's autocorrelation is. you can readily notice loops - even rather long ones - with ease.

anyway... thanks for listening, and giving me an excuse to explain that endlessly descending scale in more detail...

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Falling &mdash 11/16/07 - 09:32:08 PM
Impressive work !!

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. &mdash 11/22/07 - 10:04:03 PM
thank you for listening

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Math is not my best subject &mdash 11/16/07 - 09:37:34 PM
Is the answer 5?


But, listening I can do. Very interesting, and somehow it has a "in-reverse play" feeling to it as well.

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i hated math &mdash 11/17/07 - 09:04:04 AM
but am staying after school for this one...pretty cool smokey

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. &mdash 11/22/07 - 10:15:55 PM
well, we could call it "patterns" instead of math. would that help? :-)

thanks

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. &mdash 11/22/07 - 10:08:37 PM
perhaps the in-reverse thing is because the chord progression is not strongly suggesting a key, and then the endless modulation just never lets your ear settle on it...

i was just playing with this chord progression earlier, but without the modulation, and i might use it again to create another rather different song.

thanks for listening and commenting!

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Impressive &mdash 11/17/07 - 09:02:14 AM
and strangely compelling. I found myself wondering "what's next?"

Good, if complex, stuff.

Cheers

Dick


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. &mdash 11/22/07 - 10:20:28 PM
in an early version of this song, it ended with the guy hitting the ground.

but that seemed a bit too harsh. so i moved that sound from the end to the very beginning... now the song is more like he's falling in a bottomless pit or something.

thanks


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Music of the spheres &mdash 11/17/07 - 06:49:31 PM
nicely done - there's beauty in numbers - you've shown that for sure. Another one of your intriguing process pieces - I always enjoy these.

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. &mdash 11/22/07 - 10:23:04 PM
after you commented, i ended up adding a diagram to the description. it's more like "music of the rectangles" - tilings come to mind.

thanks


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Tripping & Falling... &mdash 11/19/07 - 10:54:15 PM
... down the rabbit hole. :-) Alice (CJ) in magical/mathmatical Wonderland. :-) Music is the most intimate and sensual expression of mathmatics. (aural descent :-P explicit :-) giggle :-) )

Math is something I never did well at. :-) I did however like Geometry - because if after working the problem your triangle came out looking like a "Z", you had another chance to fix it before handing in your homework. :-)

And tell Vic - the answer is "42" [of course] (and "Don't Panic" :-) )

Take good care, dearheart, and make sure to tie your shoelaces from now on - "around the tree and down the rabbit hole" - or something to that effect. :-)

P.S. Guess What, Big Brother!!! :-) Good News! Tell you soon! :-) Luv, Lil' Sis



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. &mdash 11/22/07 - 10:30:00 PM
this song did start from the title - and was chosen since it seemed like a good sequel to the previous song - as you noticed! although tripping and falling sounds a bit hazardous.

and i agree, this is geometrical - perhaps moreso than mathematical - i only realized that after making that chord diagram.

thanks

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Pretty cool Smokey! &mdash 11/20/07 - 09:25:29 PM
Intrigue! Would make a compelling soundtrack. Well done. You are very interesting.

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. &mdash 11/22/07 - 10:32:43 PM
i had no idea what genre to pick, it could have been Experimental, Other, or Cinematic Soundtrack...

glad you liked this

thanks

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Music and Math &mdash 02/14/08 - 07:07:23 PM
are inextricably linked..pleasing to me--from both vantage points.

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. &mdash 02/14/08 - 08:14:09 PM
i agree - it's also curious how analytical thought and emotional spontaneity are both useful approaches to creating and experiencing music.

what a strange thing music is!

thanks

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