01/11/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 11)

Recorded in a WWII Fallout Shelter on Whidbey Island.

12 Moons Solo Project Day 11

Date: 01/11/2013
Instrument: Soprano Saxophone
Location: Fort Casey Military Base, Whidbey Island

Notes:

Built on a lookout near a strategic ocean passage between Whidbey Island and the mainland of WA state, Fort Casey served as an artillery post during WWII. This amazing place is now a WA state park and no longer in military use. My piece today was recorded in a cement bunker built as a fallout shelter in case of a nuclear attack. The space is a corridor, approximately 40 feet long with iron doors at its entrance and iron doors separating the various compartments. I placed my microphone setup near at an angled point in this corridor to capture the amazing amount of reverb and delay.

The space was pitch black, and when I entered into it the daylight was fading and barely filtered in. I forgot my flashlight and was met by absolute elation at the sound of the space, and the terrifying reality of being inside a fallout shelter in pitch black alone. After only 70+ plus years of existence, this space is being reclaimed by nature. As I played swallows would occasionally swoop in beside me. In the ceiling above me water dripped through the cracks and hit the floor, building little stalactites from the ground up. Water was eroding the floor. 

I decided to use the natural reverb of this location in my improvisation today. I began with a single pitch to help establish my bearings with the decay of sound. I eventually worked to develop this pitch by the addition of overtones and multiphonics. As with my piece from January 8th, I used slap tonging and high pitch wails to try and get a sense of the wide spectrum this space had to offer. I also incorporated dissonant, wide intervals into this piece to help elaborate on the transition from my single note melodies to the harmony then created by delay in the room.

-Neil

01/10/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 10)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 10

Date: 01/10/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: South Whidbey High School. Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

Each Thursday for the past 6 years I’ve worked with students at South Whidbey High School. Our practice space is located next to a long, narrow hallway with high ceilings and hard laminate floors. During my break each week I practice in this space, and I’m always excited about the resonate qualities of this hallway.

For my piece today I worked with the open, ringing quality of this room by playing a piece with a simple sound concept. Through this improvisation I use a single fingering, with my right hand trilling as fast as possible and my left hand trilling at a medium tempo. I stagger the opening and closing of keys in each hand to create continuous loops of sound. In this improvisation I aimed to work on balancing a high pitch with a low blanket of sound pulses. I attempted at times to crossfade these sounds, so that as the higher pitch becomes quieter the lower “blanket” pitches become louder. Much like a pianist is required to play contrasting parts in each hand, I began using this technique several years ago as an exercise to see what sounds I could cull out of my horn. Essentially my hands perform a similar action but move at different speeds.

01/09/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 9)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 9

Date: 01/09/2013

Instrument: Tenor Saxophone

Location: Home studio (Clinton, WA on Whidbey Island)

Notes:

For a time I studied classical Hindustani music while in college.  I came to a realization one day that in the majority of slower improvisations, performers in this style use grace note ornamentation on nearly every pitch.  Once I came this realization it gave me yet another heightened level of respect for the complication of improvising in the strict classical Hindustani school.  For my piece today, I explored this use of ornamentation.

Every other day or so in my improvisatory practice routine, I create melodies where I try to ornament each pitch with a grace note that precedes it.  In my piece today I worked with this concept, choosing pitches at will and attempting to place a slight grace note before every note that I play.  This is amazingly difficult, and  particularly so at a quick tempo.  I attempted to do this while creating disjunct rhythmic phrases.  

In this improvisation I set out to try and slowly lengthen the duration of the grace notes, until the pitches become almost fully regular, sounding as though  they have no preceding note.  I intended to do this and end the piece once I felt I had achieved this, but in that moment I decided to continue the improvisation and attempt to perform the same task in reverse, by beginning once again slowly shorten the length of the grace notes.  As an image today at neilwelch.com I included a screen shot of this sound file, which I think very clearly illustrates this in a visual format.

-Neil 

01/08/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 8!)

12 Moons solo saxophone project Day 8

Date: 01/08/2013
Instrument: Tenor Saxophone
Location: Performance Auditorium at Chief Seatlth/Denny Middle school in Seattle, WA

Notes:

The acoustics in the auditorium at Chief Sealth high school are outstanding for solo music. The natural reverb paired with the construction of the room create amazing pockets of sound activity with certain saxophone gestures. For this improvisation, I worked with various slap tonging techniques, and overblowing the horn while taking in a great deal of mouthpiece in my embouchure. My mic location was positioned in the back of the room, and I moved from side to side in the 50+ foot stage to capture as much of the room acoustics as possible.

01/07/2012 (12 Moons Project Day 7)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project

Date: 01/07/2013
Instrument: Tenor Saxophone
Location: Home Studio (Clinton, WA)

Notes:

Indonesian Gamelon is on my mind today. I am overwhelmed by the power of Gemelon as a tool to take the listener into a state of intense, meditative focus. The use of rhythm and timbre in Javanese Gamelon is of particularly interest to me lately. My knowledge of this music is limited, but I’ve noticed that Javanese Gamelon does not seem to be performed at tempos quite as virtuosic as it’s Indondesian counterpart This focused, carefully paced and carefully orchestrated music inspired my improvisation today. 

I chose a multiphonic with a middle range starting point. In this multiphonic is a concert “A,” (quarter step low) pitch which you will hear throughout. In Gamelon there is a pushing a pulling of rhythm and tempo. I used a great deal of pressure in my right hand to force the keys to speak tones of their own. These are tones sound by striking the key against the body, or “key cups”, with a careful amount of air that allows them to speak their own tones without creating the traditionally fingered pitches. I then used different chromatic fingering combinations and tempos to create the elasticity of tempo that is so captivating in Gamelon. To try and mirror the wide range of timbres and octaves represented in Gamelon, I used my embouchure to pull out other high and mid tones to create more rhythmic and melodic material.

-Neil Welch