11/06/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 310)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 310

Date: 11/6/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

After finishing my practice session this morning, I decided to record a piece that complimented what I had focused on.  I devoted my time today to working with single pitched material with more of a melodic profile overall.  In thinking about what to record today, I decided to maintain the singular pitch approach but through the lens of rapid execution.  In this piece I wanted the sound profile to be transparent, so I shied away from giving the impression of polyphony very often, except for brief moments in the piece.  I felt these small impressions of polyphony helped to further elaborate the reality that the bulk of the material took a more arpeggiated approach, and again, was in reality only single-pitched without any true harmony at all.

During this improvisation I used some dynamic and articulation shaping to help bring about changes in the piece.  This also included occasional accenting of pitches to give moments of respite from the thick nest of sound.  I approached the piece from the vantage point of a root fingering shape, which was played in the following order:

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2, Side Bb

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low Bb

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low Bb, Palm D

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low Bb

This was only a jumping off point, and I began diverging from this actual pattern almost immediately.  Other alterations include putting down the D and Low C keys in the right hand, opening and closing the G key in left hand and Fork F key in the left hand, among others.

-Neil

The image “Mushroom Book” accompanying today’s post by John Cage, Lois Long (1972).

11/05/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 309)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 309

Date: 11/05/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This morning I gave a 20 minute lecture on the music of John Coltrane to a group of 7th and 8th graders before beginning our weekly clinic.  I do these brief clinics from time to time, if for no other reason that to show kids that an adult in their life can be whole-heartedly passionate about something.  I compared two recordings–“Blue Trane” from the album of the same name, and Jupiter, from “Interstellar Space."  I wanted to show them two extraordinary achievements in sound and message.  My lecture swayed more towards the later, and I tried to tease out of them what this message could be for each of us–the subjective message–and why it’s worthy of our attention.  

After finishing my class, I recorded a few minutes later in the main performance hall adjacent to the band room.  The lights in the room were not working, and that end of the building was uncharacteristically quiet for that time of the morning.  I decided to carry Coltrane’s soulful energy into my improvisation today.  This piece uses wide arches of sound with no pre-scripted approach, save for my own thoughts on Coltrane’s message and its place in my own music.

-Neil

The image Man holding large camera photographing a cataclysmic event, possibly a volcano erupting, 1908/2012 (Tiled Version 3).” accompanying today’s post by Lisa Oppenheim (2012).

11/04/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 308)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 308

Date: 11/04/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This morning I had a cord of wood delivered, and I got right to stacking it up in the wood shed.  Living on Whidbey Island, it’s very special for me to have this wood.  The sellers usually live in the areas they deliver to, and the wood is often harvested off their own land.  Seeing the massive pile dumped in my driveway brings me right into the Fall and Winter.  It’s also very special for me to stack it.  I love seeing the tight pack with the jagged, cracked face of the stack.  It represents warmth and abundance, and a direct connection to the land around me.  After finishing the hauling and stacking of it this morning, I went in to practice with a light heart and a clear mind.

In this improvisation I oscillated between two semi-dissonant chords, with transitions into chromatic passages with ascending and descending chord shapes.  The dissonant chords were interpreted in two different ways.  The first interpretation opens the improvisation, with muted tones in the bottom part of the upper register sounding a minor third melody.  The second interpretation included a more liberal playing of the two fingerings where I worked to capture new clusters and swooping overtones in the chords.  This same interpretation eventually settles on another minor third melodic interval, this time played in the altissimo register.  All of these shapes used the same two fingerings, which were played with the following fingerings:

Two semi-dissonant chords (with descending minor third melodic intervals)

(Left Hand) Fork F, 2, Palm Eb only, Low B // (Right Hand) 1-3, Low C

(Left Hand) 1-2, Palm Eb only, Low B // (Right Hand) 1-3, Low C

The chromatic figure was played using the second of the above fingerings, with additional keys added and taken away to execute the figure.  I interpreted this chromatic passage in a number of ways, including rapid articulation, speeding up and slowing down, accenting of internal tones, as well as bringing out higher octave pitches.  The chromatic figures were played with the following fingerings:

Ascending:

(Left Hand) 1-2, Palm Eb only, Low B // (Right Hand) 1,2, 3, Low C

(Left Hand) 1-2, Palm Eb only, Low B // (Right Hand) 1-3, Low C

(Left Hand) 1-2, Palm Eb only // (Right Hand) 1-3, Low C

(Left Hand) 1-2, Palm Eb only, Low C# // (Right Hand) 1-3, Low C

Descending:

(Left Hand) 1-2, Palm Eb only // (Right Hand) 1-3, Low C

(Left Hand) 1-2, Palm Eb only, Low B // (Right Hand) 1-3, Low C

(Left Hand) 1-2, Palm Eb only, Low B // (Right Hand) 1,2, 3, Low C

-Neil

The image of a wood pile accompanying today’s post from hikinginmainewithkelley.blogspot.com.  This wood pile was come upon by the blog’s author while hiking in the back woods of Maine.

11/03/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 307)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 307

Date: 11/03/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

While practicing briefly this morning, I began improvising melodies that used heavy ornamentation, specifically centering around grace note gestures with occasional trills.  I approached my improvisation today in a similar fashion, performing a piece that stayed within the given range of the horn, maintained a heavy amount of ornamentation throughout, and used freely improvised melodies.  However, I also decided to incorporate 3 multiphonic fingerings with specific melodic cues to help give the piece further grounding.

Multiphonic Figure 1 was only executed after having played a Concert E in the lower register.  This multiphonic shared a concert E as the highest note in the chord voicing.  This multiphonic was fingered as follows:

Figure 1.  Pitches (in ascending order) G#, E.  

(Left Hand) 1-3, Octave, Low B // (Right Hand) 1-2, Low C

Multiphonic Figures 2 and 3 were each played as part of a melodic shape,  one after the other.  The melodic figure and fingerings were as follows:

Figure 2.  C-B-Multiphonic chord——

(Left Hand) 1-3 // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low Eb

Figure 3.  B-A#-Multiphonic chord——–

(Left Hand) 1-2 // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low Eb

-Neil

The image “The Galde” accompanying today’s post by Roderic O'Conor (1892).

11/02/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 306)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 306

Date: 11/02/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

During today’s improvisation, I worked with two split-tone fingerings that each used a minor 7th interval.  The first of the two fingerings used tempered tuning with the concert pitches G# (mid register) and E (upper register).  The second used non-tempered tuning, with a concert G (quarter step sharp) in the middle register and a concert Eb in the upper register.  These were fingered as follows:

Fingering 1.  Pitches: G#/E

(Left Hand) 1, Octave // (Right Hand) 2-3

Fingering 2.  Pitches: G (quarter step high)/Eb

(Left Hand) 1-2 Octave // (Right Hand) 2-3

I was interested in the beautiful timbal qualities brought out in these two fingerings by cycling open and closed keys, and well as flicking open and then closed other keys.  This included the Side C, Side Bb, High F, as well as the Side F#.  The first example of the “flicking” open of a key takes place about :20 into the improvisation, when I began flicking open and closed the side F# key.  As the piece progressed I began gradually incorporating sound cycles into the soundscape as a more prominent feature.  I also incorporated a melody into the two chords, which became a theme I repeated a number of times throughout the improvisation.  The melody used the following pitches: Eb, D, B, Ab.  This melody was finished with a final pitch–G (quarter step high), which was also a split tone with a concert Eb in the upper register.  This final sound in the melody used Fingering 2, as acted as a bridge away from the single pitched melody back into the two split tone fingerings.

-Neil

The image “Untitled” accompanying today’s post by Charline von Heyl (2003).