Explanation about technique used in writing my 6-part invention

Download the article by clicking this link. You may have trouble downloading it with some versions of internet explorer. In that case use chrome or firefox instead.

You can hear the result of the tutorial in my previous post.

6-part Invention

What? Not another one??

In a previous post I explained what technique I used to write a Canon in 5 parts without much sweating. I've been experimenting a bit more with the technique and here's the result of one of those newer experiments: a 6-part invention.

Structure

As it goes with such pieces it's interesting to highlight the structure of the piece. The piece starts with a theme. The theme is repeated at different starting pitches (basic fugal treatment), and counter-subjects are introduced which are really just the theme in canon to itself. The canon is left to play in 3 voices at a few different starting pitches, and then gradually morphs into a different canon with a different theme. The new canon is also given some basic fugal treatment, and finally both canons sound simultaneously forming a 6-part super-canon with two themes playing simultaneously in 3 different time-delayed versions each. The piece rests in peace after a soothing final chord.

How did you make this?

The piece is generated using the techniques explained in my tutorial on writing canons, with some cool twists. I intend to fully explain the creation of this piece including the full score and algorithms in a new tutorial that will appear in a separate post. Stay tuned :)

Enough already... let me hear what this is all about

Ok.. ok... Here it is:

And here it is as well:

Tutorial on my technique for writing a canon

I promised to write a tutorial on how to write a canon like the one I posted in my previous post Canon in 5, and I did.

The tutorial is 12 pages long, but most of that space is taken up by white-space and examples. You will probably get the most out of it if you already know how to read music, although strictly speaking it is not a requirement to already benefit from the material in the tutorial.

You can get the tutorial in .pdf format by clicking this link. You may have trouble downloading it with some versions of internet explorer. In that case use chrome or firefox instead.

You can listen to the result of the tutorial here:

Drop me a note if you've been able to use the techniques explained in there.

Canon in 5

So I've been experimenting today with an idea I had on how to write a canon without needing to know a lot of music theory. I want to explain the method I used in a later post, but here's the result of a test drive with a short theme repeated 5 times.

To conceive this 5 part fugue using the method I invented (or more likely: rediscovered :-) ) was a matter of a few minutes. The creation of the score and the rendering to audio and video took a bit longer.

You can hear the synthesizer version here:

You can download the score by clicking this link. And here's a preview of the score:

Enjoy!

Rain Dance

Another day, another piece!

LMMS madness struck again... I tried to make something different from my usual style and the result - love it, or hate it, is here.

I've embedded some soundscapes into the music (reused from http://freesound.org)

• oceanwavescrushing by Luftrum (CC attribution)
• kinder auf dem spielplatz by fieldmuzick (sampling+)
• thunderstorm2 by erdie (CC attribution)