12 Moons World Listeners/Viewers:
I’m backpacking in the wilds of the North Cascades from Sunday (08/18)- Wednesday (08/21). Posts 232-234 will be delayed until Wednesday or Thursday. Thanks for your patience!
I’ll be carrying my soprano out there as well and looking forward to playing and recording in the incredible natural landscapes of this territory.
Take care everyone!
-Neil
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 230
Date: 08/18/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
This improvisation deals with ascending shapes, both in pitch content and in harmony. I wanted to create a singular world in three parts, each of those parts being a sonic environment complimentary to one another. To do this I used three fingerings, each physically within the same region of the instrument, meaning the keys being opened and closed were spaced only a few centimeters from one another. I made use of a constant trill in the right hand during this improvisation which helped to link each of the three sound worlds together. The fingerings used were as follows:
Fingering 1:
(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Octave // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys. Trill the F in the right hand constantly.
Fingering 2:
(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Octave // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Palm Eb. Trill the F in the right hand constantly.
Fingering 3:
(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Octave // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Fork F. Trill the F in the right hand constantly.
From the base point at which the sound would emerge from the horn, I used my embouchure to begin gently bending the air upward into the altissimo register of the instrument. From there I would, when I felt the timing was correct, shift to the next fingering. I gave myself liberty to move back and forth between the fingerings, but generally I tried to give the piece an overall shape of ascension. Even the key clacking used in this piece itself rose in pitch. When cycling any of the fingerings above, tones emerge from the horn with or without air. However, when blowing even a small amount of air into the horn the “root” pitches will still sound, the same as if I were blowing at regular volume. But if I stop the air flow and let the tones resonate against the bell, the pitch shifts upward slightly. In this way, I used even the halting of air to contribute toward the theme of ascension.
-Neil
The image “Christina’s World” accompanying today’s post by Andrew Wyeth (1948).
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 229
Date: 08/17/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
During my practice session today I worked with the theme of orchestration. I combined clusters of sound in a variety of different textures and fingering cycles. These ranged from very controlled sound concepts to more abstract sound-color improvisations. My recorded improvisation today lies somewhere between these two spectrums. I used a single fingering as a springboard, which was as follows:
(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb // (Right Hand) F# key
From this fingering I also added the Side F#, Low D and Low F (all in the right Hand) in vary combinations to create recurring cycles of sound or abstract one-off textures. At the beginning of the improvisation I added or took away keys more indeterminately, exploring colors of sound in the aforementioned abstract approach. The patterns and melodies played in this piece were improvised, but as is clearly heard, there are many recurring patterns. These shapes became my point of departure to begin balancing tones within the sound clusters, orchestrating them based off of what struck me from moment to moment. At times I would begin to pull out one tone more than another, particularly when I used more complex poly-rhythms. The high E and high F (each in the tenor key) became integral in centering my ears towards concrete elements from which to privet on. I worked to cross fade tones in and out, with a particular emphasis on the crescendoing of sound. Variations in tempo from slow to fast, fast to slow, or more abrupt changes also became improvised elements used to help accentuate the orchestration of sound by punctuating recurring themes or helping to transition from one section to another.
-Neil
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 228
Date: 08/16/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: A forested area at my childhood elementary school. Edmonds, WA
Notes:
Before heading to my family’s house, early this morning I stopped and walked around the forested areas at my childhood elementary school. I grew up across the street from this school, and the grassy fields and small, wooded areas were my daily spots for exploration growing up. One of the small forests was my particular favorite as a kid, and I walked through it this morning for the first time since I was in elementary school 20 or so years ago. What once was untamed and densely packed with tress and other foliage has now been turned into a hybrid forest and learning environment. There are still towering Maple, Doug Fir and Cedar trees, but rough-hewn wooden benches now form a half circle around a large bare patch of ground. It’s a calm, quiet spot.
The cleared out ground in the center of this wooded area created a beautiful acoustic environment that held the sound tight within the space. The reverberation from the trees seemed to bounce more in a circle around me than disperse into the woods and disappear. This helped guide me towards my improvisation today, which was an exploration of double tonging pitches. In this piece I balanced linear, that is note-to-note lines, with more disjunct interruptions from high octave chirps. At other points I also centered within the extreme upper register and then interrupted this region with interjections from the register below. The double tonging remained consistent throughout this piece, and despite the gritty pitch combinations explored here, I played relatively quiet until the end of the piece, where I began to increase in volume and intensity considerably.
-Neil
The image “Mediatheque, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, Scale model 1:150” accompanying today’s post by Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects, Japan (1995-2001)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 227
Date: 08/15/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
This entire day I’ve felt a storm in my mind. My thought processes have felt scattered, with periods of obsessive cycles on the same topical theme over and over. I woke up thinking about the current conflict in Egypt, listening about it all morning and reflecting on it all day, and frankly all of the past two full days, but the news of it I feel has little directly to do with my internal knots. It must be playing a role, but I’ve felt my own problems trump those of others today, which, given the terrifying reality of life in that country at this moment this seems indulgent and selfish. But none the less, this is my state of being today. The sounds captured in this improvisation were developed first thing in the morning, but because of their striking similarity in sound and overall approach to yesterday’s improvisation (Day 227), I decided to wait to record until the end of the day to see if I would evolve a bit. I did not, and the piece did not. This improvisation, I can truly say was a full, unswerving reflection of myself on this day.
The improvisation hinges on a 6-pitch gesture, with each note played with the same fingering: (Left Hand) B-G keys, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Side F
Written in the tenor key and in ascending order, this fingering creates the tones: Eb (quarter step sharp, E (quarter step sharp), C#, E, F#, B. The Eb and E create a wonderful tight-knit cluster which is capable of sustaining beneath each of the pitches above them. Though I did stray a bit from these 6 pitches, I generally tried to maintain the bottom Eb and E while exploring the upper tones. As the piece evolved, I began adding slight pulses of sound by flicking open and closed the Palm Eb and Low Eb keys. I also focused on using an extreme amount of air and higher whistle tones from air interacting with my reed. I felt this contributed towards the quiet torrent of sound used in this improvisation.
-Neil
The image “Self Portrait" accompanying today’s post by Jackson Pollock (1931-1935).
