First "Frequency" Virus Hits Anaphoria. HRZ-432

DETAIL SHOWING DAMAGE CAUSED BY THE HRZ 432 VIRUS

It didn't take long for a non fatal but extremely debilitating virus  to sweep and fan wide spread panic. " I was just filled with nausea and feelings of vision of no future. I felt stuck with no motivation could no longer eat, especially any food that hadn't been tried before" reported one citizen hit with one of  the worse cases . Without any clear cause, rumors was that finally the island was under attack by hostile forces. Finally it was found that the source lie in an old abandoned mission  recently occupied by followers of La Roche  who seemed to have entered the country illegally. Within the make shift headquarters lie handouts as well as material belonging to a Schiller Institute with plans to launch a variety of other regressive virus. It was found in fact that the sounding of 432hz was having effects of nausea and since the closing of the institute under its strong anti-missionary laws and the removal of the devices sounding 432, Health and progress have returned to the Island. Still the mere mention of the frequency has caused almost instant relapses of nausea.

Riley's 5 limit tuning for "Harp of New Albion"

Riley's 5 limit tuning for "Harp of New Albion"

I had recently replaced my missing copy of Harp of New Albion by Terry Riley and decided to lattice out the tuning which i guess many might have already done. It is interesting in how La monte uses 7 limit intervals to approximate 5 and here we have Riley doing the opposite with the 16/15 over the 15/8 7 cents shy of an 8/7. Riley's use of the tuning is interesting also in that he never uses the 1/1 of his tuning for the tonic, albeit the D of 16/15 could have been also a good choice for the 1/1. Anyway in the context of the pieces it shows how far one can go into new territory with a relative simple 5 limit. I like the choice of the 64/45 giving him two just major scales which he seems to avoid using more than using. If you tuned the row with 5/3 , 5/4 and 15/8, and decided keep it in the same relationship wit h3/2 and 9/8 by lowering thise too, the scale would coincide with the Centaur Scale.

THE DOWSING POLES- New instrument member of the Meta-Slendro Ensemble

The Dowsing Poles This instrument grew out of a desire to have something like Tubular Bells to add to my ensemble of Meta-Slendro instruments. This tuning is anything but a conventional Slendro encompassing instruments using 12, 17 and 22 unequally spaced pitches in the octave informed by both traditional sources and recurrent sequence mathematics. 

In order to realize such a Tubular Bell instrument and after much experimentation, I decided to explore the possibilities of suspending the tubes in the middle instead of the conventional nodes used on all my other instruments. This produces a somewhat similar sound to the desired orchestral instrument but with even more pitch, making the use of small distances between some pitches in the tuning much more practical and realistic.

Mounting the bars in this fashion was extremely difficult as it a point of balance, but wanted the tubes to be vertical in order to take up less space and easier to play. The present method of tying elastic cord seems to work well but am still not cutting the cords quite yet in order to see how it works after at least a few weeks. Hence why they can still be seen for the time being. This instrument is also quite modular being usable in any or all of the three sections and it allows the tubes to be placed in any order of which is shown here. The sections themselves are also flexible in being placed in a chain of any configuration here conforming to the only flat section on the Anaphorian Embassy grounds. This instrument will get it premiere at the Now Now Festival this Thursday night at 107 Projects

A Near Flatland with a Bastard Lattice- An Addition to The Journal of Anaphorian Music Theory

This paper is an addition to the Journal of Anaphorian Music Theory that looks at one set of progressions that occur  within the normal 12 tone scale.  The overall idea is that analogous structures can be constructed in other systems but worth sharing with a broader music community for those interested in what can be done with pitch.
http://anaphoria.com/flatlandbastard.pdf

Installation as an Immersive Score

Meru Set 1 - Back of Screen 1

 Before I write about my final installation presented at UOW, on this blog, i wish to focus on the musical aspect of the installation separately as a mirror from the way it was realised.

For the moment I resist classifying this as sound art for reason which I will explain. Usually from that perspective,  sound is an added element to a visual display. In this particular case i am entertaining the idea to look at in an complementary way.  Here the concept is to having the totality of an immersive space replace or act a the musical score.As I am not imposing sound into the space, I am inviting the participants to explore
 what is presented as options. This to me is more like a score.

Meru Set 2 - Back of Screen 2

This allows new possibilities not possible with conventional scores regardless of their format.  The idea is to immerse the performer in the score as opposed it being an object presented in front of one where the other surroundings are suppressed or ignored. It also omits the role of the score of something that is projected outward into the space since one is already inside of it. In this installation a participant is open to explore the totality of everything that is presented to them. It thus represents a totality in which the visual elements provide the stimulus for the sound.

Meru Set 3 -Front of Screen 2

Such a composition opens up new possibilities in terms of being open ended, without a fixed perceptible beginning and ending,  for varied number of players, and of  changing  players who might only participate in part of the total duration. The nature of the participants moving through the space thus liberates the concept of one person one instrument or set of instruments. In this sense it works toward a composition without an author or an anonymous one. The players though unlike in traditional western music do not bring instruments, something closer to how gamelan ensembles are fixed and thus a centre where people congregate. The corporeal experience and presence becomes the determination of how the work unfolds in the space which will be unique to each participant.

Meru Set 3 - Front of Screen 3

A composition nevertheless can be quite specific yet allows for each participant to take an active part in the create act. There is no separation between performer and audience. In this case, the instruments are predetermined and where they sound in the room is fixed. How they are arrange influences what a person might play next as well as providing self contained units even if the overall movement of the space is not. It is the unique structural possibilities of a certain class of microtonal instruments that allow for this type of interaction where strong acoustical realities can go from one end of the room to the other while still providing a local identity.

Meru Set 3 - Front of Screen 4

The installation incorporates a few of my instruments being used both in for their visual presence and as the sounds they produce.

Meru Set 3 - Shadows on Wall

9 of my Meru bars are used which are arranged in 4 sets of closely related pitches that cause beating. 

Meru Set 4- Back of Screen 3

 In the space, there is an over all placement starting from the entrance from low to high to correspond to the general character of the visual screens in which in turn is based on the space itself.

Meru Set 4 - Front of Screen 4

 What happens is that each visual elements such as the screen ( not that the score is limited to them) might be viewed from more than one perspective.

Meru Set 4 - Front of Screen 5

Also each instrument set will be a local point of perspective of the whole installation which will interpret even the same screen and frame and the shadows in a different way.

Meru Set 4 -View of The Tree

Each set will have available multiple direction to draw upon and even what is placed in back of the head  can continue to inform the participant.

The Tree - Front of Screen 5

 The sound of other instruments in the space extends ones vision and interaction around the corners of the space as well as invoking the memories from their location.

The Tree - Back of Screen 4

The instruments themselves can form apart of the score.

The Tree - Overall 

 The space or score in this case thus reflects a totality, a universe that one finds one is within. All elements one witnesses in the space becomes part of the score thereby increasing the means in which the score can interact.

THE HISTORY OF PROTEST DURING ANAPHORIA’S GREAT MISSIONARY EXPULSION

This short but distinct book by the respected historian Vunos Rainter is now available at the Center of Alphabetical Sequencing.  Already it is being heralded as an important work in detailing the unique methods of protesting during the last great upheaval on the island more than a century ago.  Since the Missionaries were strongly supported by military “advisors”, a different tactic was taken than the usual attempt of soliciting large group protest that normally take place in such situation. Instead the protest involve simultaneously appearing on as many different street corners possible. The effectiveness of this was it ability to be seen by more people that a concentrated group pushed to remote locales would not. When infiltrators seem to tip off the powers that be, smaller groups where formed that if need be would break into free acting protestors appearing randomly at times of high visibility.  This greatly hampered the mobilization of small but stronger forces who were unable to be everywhere at once.  The book also chronicles other tactics that appeared at the time like short 15 minute protests of large groups that would be gone by the time forces could be brought into place. Later there were even ‘groups of fives’ where smaller protest units divided into 5 groups would appear in a chain of locations each for a short period of time but them proceeding to another. Some locations could and would be visited within a few hours by a different group.

Forming Tetrachordal Scales from the Subharmonic Series

Here is a page of a document  added to The Journal of Anaphorian Music Theory. The document looks at one simple way one can derive tetrachordal scales from a subharmonic series. Such scales have been observed on equally spaced holes on flutes as well possibly the Greek Aulos.  Regardless of the case,  the scales manage to touch upon some well known ancient Greek ones as well as presenting  a method to finding others. Such a method could be easily tuned with only an ability to tune fourths and fifths above a given note.
A direct link to the PDF is also Here.

Performance from Yours and Owls 3/13

Here is an almost year old video clip from Yours and Owl's in Wollongong. It might be my favorite video on youtube as it seem to have less problems with it than the others. It is too bad the slower beginning didn't make in in, but it stands on its own. With Terumi Narushima as the duo Clocks and Clouds. A big thanks to Rory Anderson for putting this together on the fly.

CAS Commission Investigates Churchward's Map of Mu Resemblence to Anaphoria

A recently surfaced map of the Mu empire has lead to the formation of  a Center For Alphabetical Sequencing  commission to investigate it supposed source. This map of the Mu empire by James Churchward  that up till now had been unknown, has struck many in Anaphoria as being almost identical to the shape found in some of the oldest maps of the island. Some have disputed that the location and especially the size  is too far off for this to be anything more than a coincidence. Still others find evidence with Churchward stating this island was inhabited by people called the Naacal. While there are no such people on Anaphoria, the word does exist  in the language of the people surrounding village of Aal, meaning "family" or "social group".  Wikipedia states- Churchward claimed to have gained his knowledge of this lost land after befriending an Indian priest, who taught him to read an ancient dead language (spoken by only three people in all of India). The priest disclosed the existence of several ancient tablets, written by the Naacals, and Churchward gained access to these records after overcoming the priest's initial reluctance. His knowledge remained incomplete, as the available tablets were mere fragments of a larger text, but Churchward claimed to have found verification and further information in the records of other ancient peoples. 

It is reported by the commissions spokesperson  that while Churchward appears partially mistaken due to the incompleteness of data, it places possible  contact with India much further back and on a deeper level than previously conceived.
The  commission hopes this might solve certain unanswered questions about Anaphoria's ancient and cryptographic history.

A 19 tone extension of Centaur for Strings- Silenus

While my Centaur tuning was originally designed for 7-limit ear training back in the days when electronic means were too unstable to use, it has been imposing itself in recent years for a variety of projects. The occasion for this has been in having to write for ensembles to play music in another tuning but one that is also manageable to those not specializing in such things.

 One such project was for the Australian group, Ensemble Offspring and it soon again became useful in composing a String Quartet to be work shopped in Aberdeen. The latter had its real premiere last Nov. in Los Angeles by a string quartet led by Melinda Rice. As I invited to do another piece by Melinda as well as a another group, Locana, which includes a cello and violin, a new question arose: is there a 7 limit tuning that preserves the open string tunings in fifths yet gives some of the basic material also found in Centaur.

Since a shape of an interval learned on one string easily translates to another, the limitation to 12 pitches was unduly restricting. Hence the next point where things fell into a nice shape was with a 19 tone scale which differs by only one note from one worked out by Terumi Narushima in a lesson. Since the context is its use with strings, certain options present themselves as easily transposed from one string to another.

Landini in Exile

This is a little experiment with transposing sections of a piece of Landini into Wilson's Meta-Ptolemy.This gets us close to 7 equal country without degenerating into it. Hence it has more shape and contour as can be seen above.
 The piece uses the same 3 instruments and 3 lines but transposed to different places in the scale with the lines also being exchanged in the instruments.

IN A PENTAGON ROOM CD AVAILABLE

The Archives of Anaphoria is pleased to present its first release in 8 years 

IN A PENTAGONAL ROOM

Performed by Clocks and Clouds

Kraig Grady Meta-Slendro vibraphone

Terumi Narushima Meta-Slendro organ

http://anaphoria.com/music.html

IN A PENTAGONAL ROOM is the first CD of microtonal performance duo CLOCKS AND CLOUDS. The title refers to the unique five-sided reverberation chamber in which the recordings are made. The shape and surface of the room produce sounds and decays that last as long as 12 seconds enhancing the unique sounds of the duo's specially tuned instruments. The interaction of harmonics produced by the Meta-Slendro vibraphone and organ is captured via a special five microphone setup, resulting in what will probably be considered the definitive recording of these instruments. The album is totally acoustic and free of overdubs or enhancement. Even equalization is by-passed in order to retain the high quality of the original sounds.

              Dawn Crossing of the Bridge- Beginning Excerpt available here

http://anaphoria.com/music.html

New Instrument In Meta-Mavila

Here is a new instrument that features a scale called Meta-Mavila (sometimes called mavila is some tempered version). It is only a nine tone scale. It could have been a 16 tone scale but when i had that version on organ, i was not as happy with it as much as only this subset. 

It will mark the first time i am working towards an ensemble with a scale of less than 12 pitches. But it is really only the third such endeavor of ensemble building i have undertaken. But I am far more instrested in ensemble of instruments or families instruments than individual instruments that might sound good but not with others. The other ensembles have been first a 31 tone scale with a 22 tone subset. The second is my Meta-Slendro 12 tone tuning which works well on retuned 12 tone instruments.

 Am i becoming more interested in less notes? It seems like it. More than anything it is more like a refinement of a musical poetic language, cutting out the unessentials and having some sense of what it is im most interested into exploring in depth. This scale has no real connecting points with European tuning outside of just being one. Some intervals that might have 3 steps on the piano are here subdivided something closer to 2. But it is not an equal scale at all. Each tone has it own unique place in the overall sequence of things of equal value and relationship. 

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 There were simpler ways to mount this, but I was missing having a scale with a generalized pattern where each scale or chord always has the same pattern over a keyboard, or in this sense a layout of bars. I plan to use it in an installation in April where others know nothing of the theory behind but will be able to play it.  Experimenting will let one discover they can take a pattern they like and repeat it or imitate another on a different places on the instrument and will sound the same. This will make it fun if more than one joins in being able to imitate someone else by working with the same pattern. 

The whole tuning based on a recurrent sequence has ways of reinforcing the harmonics found elsewhere so tends to all work together well in a environment of spontaneous playing. info on tuning is for the asking but too ponderous to try to cover here. i already have a hammer dulcimer which i have been tuning to this scale so plan on using the two together along with some bowed psaltries. Since i have two of my bass bars that coincide with this tuning, i need only add 7 more with if another project happens next year, it will be perfect for that. Remaining to be seen. Sound sample are coming but want to live with it a bit more before the introduction. Stay tuned~

Anaphoria: Creolization and Bricolage as opposed to Utopian Geography

In it amazing to find in reading ideas and expressions that fit so well with our own understanding Anaphoria as something besides a utopia and aptly describe what we are doing.

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Derek Walcott suggests that the fitting together of the fragmentary is characteristic of Antillean

art, which does not present a seamless or perfect unity of the fragmentary but results in a

multiplicity, reflected in the topographic image of the drifting archipelago of islands, broken

off from the mainland.

For other Caribbean theorists, bricolage has come to be seen as a cultural process that could also serve as a model for articulating identity in an increasingly globalized world. Such a perspective is reflected in Françoise Vergès’s definition of the relationship between bricolage and creolization:

Creolization is about bricolage drawing freely upon what is available, recreating with new content and in new forms a distinctive culture, a creation in a situation of domination and conflict. It is not about retentions but about reinterpretations. It is not about roots but about loss. It must be distinguished from cultural contact and multiculturalism because, at heart, it is a practice and ethics of borrowing and accepting to be transformed, affected by the other. In the current era of globalization, processes of creolization appear in zones of conflict and contact. They are the harbingers of an ongoing ethics of sharing the world.

Raphaël Confiant.......sees the Creole
person as cohabited by different gods or as a site where the pieces and parts of identity are
constantly mingling and disentangling, simultaneously embracing and excluding one another.
Confiant argues that this intermingled experience also applies to the domains of cuisine,
clothing, technology, and language. He reaffirms the view, previously articulated in the Eloge
de la Créolité,9 that a pluralistic identity prefigures globalization.10 Confiant’s description of
Creole bricolage seems to imply a utopian outcome in which the processes of colonization,
creolization, and globalization enable new forms of identity formation and processes of
communal enrichment through pacific intermixtures and aggregations.
While Confiant’s literary works offer more complex treatments of cultural fragmentation,
this affirmation is problematic because he ignores the possibilities for cultural impoverishment
as a result of the deliberate obliteration or unconscious repression of cultural fragments. 

 from

Colonization, Creolization, and Globalization: The Art and Ruses
of Bricolage
Knepper, Wendy.
Small Axe, Number 21 (Volume 10, Number 3), October 2006, pp.
70-86 (Article)
Published by Duke University Press

First Stage of Construction Has Begun

We are happy to announce the beginning construction of the Anaphorian Embassy of Australasia.  While Anaphoria has rare deposits of purple marble, it was only the work of Italian immigrants that began its being used in various buildings. Here you can see freshly installed as the chosen exterior for the structure structure. Outside of just being our field office it will also will function as the storehouse of the Wilson Archives.

Form with Mnemosyne (Memory) In Exile.

   The essence of all form might be memory, what holds and what and can be recalled. The post-war abandoned it possibly having little desire in returning, when that might have meant to the great destruction just witnessed. The latter minimalist kept it distance too. It extended the timeframe of the present and sought to exhaust the possibilities instead of encompassing what a reflection might cast about it. Both hovered in an endless unity that kept all within it borders. Shadows were the last either embraced.
    Must we keep memories pools and mirrors at bay, or must we remained blinded in a ‘been there, done that’ way to not face the unfinished or changed. Must all work stem from the perpective of the sun. The sun that sees no shadows.
   It took Zeus to have a  Mnemosyne (Memory) that could gave birth to the muses. Might we find some place for her and her children in a direct fashion? Might we now gain by presences that so symbolize inspiration that appear beyond us yet as close as our shadows?