06/24/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 175)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 175

Date: 06/24/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Practice room hallway at South Whidbey High School.  Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

Today I found myself at the end of my working day feeling physically low, sapped of energy and with a general feeling of malaise.  I fashioned this improvisation as a wounded battle cry for myself and tried to purge these feelings from my body.  Like a bugle, I used a single fingering to create simple melodic shapes with overtones.  I used the following fingering to do so:

(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Low B // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys

The initial upper register two-note figure with the pitches Bb to Db became my melodic refrain.  When descending below this figure in pitch, I also descended in volume.  The two pitches below the main melodic shape were Gb and C, which became points of rest between the clarion call of the two upper pitches.  At two points I also introduced a bluesy figure with the altissimo pitches Gb and E.  The large, ominous multiphonic chord played only once near the mid point of the improvisation was again derived from the same fingering, and therefore was a collection of all the pitches played.  In ascending order of range they were: C, Gb, Bb, Db, E, Gb.

-Neil

The image “Outlet” accompanying today’s post by Ernestine White (2010)

06/23/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 174)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 174

Date: 06/23/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: The Aurora Bridge and 50th street.  Seattle, WA

Notes:

This afternoon between a very busy day of teaching, a rehearsal and a show, I found myself at the intersection of Aurora Ave N and 50th street near the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.  The spot is wooded with a large, gravel covered parking area, and because of an event taking place in the Zoo adjacent to it the area was full of people.  Despite this I played, at least to my knowledge, for only myself and the trees, going undetected by the people in the parking area below or the tigers and bears only a block away.  I’ve recorded in this space during this project 4 times now, and it’s proximately to both nature and the urban environment of cars whizzing by makes it a favorite spot of mine.  

During this improvisation I decided to play what I felt was a beautiful chord, made possible only by the momentary flicking open of a side key.  The multidimensionality of this chord shape is very apparent during my moments of breath, where the rich clusters fall out.  The pitches used, in ascending order were: Concert Eb (muted, sustained tone), A, Eb, E. The fingering was as follows:

(Left Hand) Fork F, A-G keys, Octave, Low B // (Right Hand) F key, Low C.  Flick open and closed the side F# key to create the chord shape.

-Neil

The image “A Bronx Morning” accompanying today’s post by Jay Leyda (1931)

06/22/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 173)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 173

Date: 06/22/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

I spent several hours this morning and afternoon working on a new piece for large ensemble, which I’ll debut at the Racer Sessions in July.  In my writing I worked on atonal chorale figures that have bluesy melodies played on top of them, or at times buried inside the melody of the chorale itself.  With this in mind today I improvised a blues inflected piece that had a recurring harmonic theme, which a complimentary melody within it.  However, the melody is full of nonsequitur rhythms and phrasing that has no single approach, but rather an overall feeling of forward momentum.  The chords themselves have a slightly de-tuned quality, and even though they do have a strong sound of dominant–tonic, they also have instability in their nature.  

I tried to give this piece an unfinished quality, and I began it as though I were caught in mid phrase.  This consonant tonality explored in this improvisation is played by centering on two multiphonics with the following fingerings and pitches:

Pitches:High D, Middle Octave E, Low Octave G

(Left Hand) B-A-G, Octave // (Right Hand) E-D

Pitches: High D, Middle Octave F, Low Octave G quarter step high.

(Left Hand) B-A-G, Octave // (Right Hand) E-D, Side F#

The melodic figures in the piece often overlap with the multiphonic fingerings, so there is a feeling at times that the harmony sits inside the melody.  This is because the mutliphonic chords speak two or more pitches, but also have strong single pitch sounds at their core.  To help differentiate the chords from the melody I struck closely to the rhythm (1&–2) when playing the harmony.

-Neil

The image “Drawing-Asymmetry #7” accompanying today’s post by post by Jackson Mac Low (1961)

06/21/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 172)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 172

Date: 06/21/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

Today I worked on sound clusters with a hidden internal melody.  This melody then becomes the focus of action.  I recorded this piece at a medium volume and used a very tight, closed-off air flow while growling into the horn.  I had two primary goals in mind: create continuous gritty sound textures while maintaining an internal E to Eb melody, and to phase these sounds evenly into the E to Eb melody.  During the improvisation I established the busy atmosphere of the sound clusters and tried to evenly cross fade the melody into the forefront.  I then worked to evening phrase the gritty textures back in while masking the melody.  Later on in the improvisation I abruptly cut to the middle octave humming sound, and again tried to evenly phase back into the sound clusters, and finally the melody alone.

The fingering used was as follows:

(Left Hand) For F, B-G keys, Low B // (Right Hand) F-E keys, Low C.  

To create the E to Eb melody within the sound clusters, also add and then take away the Low Bb key in the left hand.  When this melody is played by itself, a Db drone natural occurs because of the fingering system.

-Neil

The image “Head of a Women” accompanying today’s post by Naum Gabo (1917-20)

06/20/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 171)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 171

Date: 06/20/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Practice Room B at South Whidbey High School.  Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

I spent about an this afternoon working on a specific set of sounds I had been exploring earlier this morning.  I captured a solid take of an improvisation using the end result, but there was something indescribably off about the finished product.  Despite doing a transcription of what I played and a written description of my process, I walked away from the piece feeling very hollow.  Towards the end of my teaching day I had an unanticipated bit of time, and went back into the practice space to try a very different kind of piece.  The end result is the improvisation captured here, which was a multifaceted response to my mood, the horn, and the room–this piece represented a holistic cycle.

This improvisation centers around an Ab drone.  The fingering that created this pitch held a special resonance in the room, filling it without a real need for volume.  Fluctuations in air flow brought out a fullness that seemed to encompass my entire body.  During this piece I began to focus heavily on when to take my next breath.  The breath created a momentary lapse in the flow of air, and began an anticipated cycle of sound–breath–sound–breath, etc.  After some time I began “flicking” the low D, breathing before doing so.  This took the focus away from the natural breath cycle and created a very new kind of cycle in the piece.  I introduced the gentle multiphonics to become part of this new secondary cycle near the end of the improvisation.

The fingering used to create the Ab was as follows:

(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E keys, Side Bb, Low C.  The small sound punctuations were created by “flicking” the D key momentarily in the right hand.  The multiphonic was created by an adjustment in embouchure pressure with the above Ab fingering.

-Neil 

The image “Untitled” accompanying today’s post by Leni Riefenstahl (1936)