2 minimalistic attempts

[pianowolfi]

Since a while I am experimenting with minimalistic elements. Two of these attempts I post here, they are both from today. While in the first I try to often break the regularity of the patterns through unregular rhythmic elements, the second one is more an expression of a mood.  Anyway.......

[pianistimo]

the first reminds me of a toy train.  you're having fun aren't you.  the second reminds me of a remote control airplane.

[Mayla]

I am listening now to the first one for the second time.  It's interesting, a lot of what you have done/are doing in this are things that I am thinking about myself :

Using rhythmic irregularity

Having "cells" as Ted would call them; and allowing a portion of one cell to remain in the next, giving some sense of joinedness between them.



Overall I really like this, and of course I love the growth in intensity as it progresses toward the finish.

It makes me want to try something like this myself .  I will listen to the second one later and comment on that when I listen .

Thanks !
Mayla

[Derek]

I really loved these.

I love the atmosphere. It kind of makes me think of a mad robot scientist's lab,
with all sorts of demented machinery of destruction going through diagnostics
tests.

1:41 - I liked that little melody that sprung out a few seconds ago that was cool
2:01 - cool, entrance of pedal made it sound like it was "opening up" more.
2:37 - awesome left hand thing its dark
3:36 - *evil grin* >D
4:37 - cool build
4:44 - *evil grin again* >D
4:58 - love that chord


ooh I love how the second one starts...nice and flowing. This isn't a scientist's lab, this one caused an entirely abstract response in me.
0:16 - I liked that seventh in there
0:42 - liked the chromatic thingie
0:51 - cool development. Mayla's right, I think Ted would like these =)
1:10 - I love the sighing figure that comes in there. man this rules
1:50 - beautiful...!
2:00 - just when you thought it couldn't get any cooler!

[ted]

Yes, Ted does like them, Wolfi. Your cells tend to be very small, strictly periodic, with simple content, have an internal pulse and repeat an even number of times, usually four or eight. Is that what minimalism, strictly so called, is supposed to do ? I don't really know, you see. I don't actually know much about music. I sometimes do a similar sort of thing, but my cells are internally complex, quasi-periodic, hardly ever strictly periodic and tend to burst the eggs of their own content.

I remember, as a kid, thinking how good it would be to just keep on repeating the bits I like within classical pieces and leave out the bits I didn't like. Well of course, that's precisely what you can do with cellular improvisation. Minimalism, I see as being cellular transition of a very simple and regular type.

The surprise and delight (for me) comes through the actual content of cells, which is mostly serendipitous. The data of one cell becomes the instruction for the next - a chaotic feedback loop. The form is completely invariant over all musical styles. Your second one, as Derek says, has particularly good melodic cellular content, which stimulated my imagination.

I would like to hear more of this stuff Wolfi, both from you and from the other improvisers on the forum.

[pianowolfi]

Thank you all for commenting! I am working on a composition that I will post later, a rather dramatic minimalistic-maximalistic ( ) thing with a huge build-up towards the end (Mayla will like this I guess) but rather tonal.  Evil grin is funny, derek Ted I will read more from you about cellular improvisation.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Interesting stuff. I'm rather in agreement with pianistimo.. the first one did indeed make me think of a toy train; also it made me think of a slightly rusty merry-go-round at a fair that every now and then needs a push to get it going again (of course it gets a bit out of control and crashes at the end!).

The second reminded me, very very strongly, of the C maj Bach Prelude from the WTC.

[pianowolfi]

Thank you Ronde, the toy train and merry-go-round thing is very funny Well the Bach thing is not soooo obvious to me, anyway he's not the badest example to learn from so I take it as a compliment. The pattern as it appears in the beginning of no 2 is taken from one of my improvs, "beams" and comes from a very mysterious region that I have not explored yet very well... of course it could be anywhere else in the musical world I don't know, I think the combination of elements makes the compositions unique after all, not the avoiding of common elements. Anyway, thanks. 

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I'll try to explain my reasoning. I suppose it's a slightly abstract connection. Both the prelude and your improvisation use essentially a broken chord figuration, and the harmony changes with each separate figuration. Imagine Bach's prelude with harmonies which conform much less to regular tonality. I don't know if that properly explains the association I made.

I think the combination of elements makes the compositions unique after all, not the avoiding of common elements.

I totally agree - I think the latter is a contrivance.

Anyway, thanks for posting these; they were interesting and made me think.

[pianowolfi]

Yeah I know what you mean. I sometimes improvise, also let students improvise, on the first Bach prelude and try all kinds of harmonics it's fun to drift more and more into the strange sounding regions of harmony using that pattern