Saturday, April 12, 2008

11 Feb 2008, #3. "Nina Totenberg" - 7m34s

In this improv, I take my obsession with the Lydian mode to an interesting place. My left hand is playing a very simple line in A, and my right hand is a fifth away, in E. That in itself would be like playing in A Lydian. But in fact, I am playing in E Lydian (and B Lydian when the harmony changes). This yields a lot of A against A#. It doesn't sound quite as dissonant as it might, however, since both notes make perfect sense in their respective lines.

I apologize to the readers who didn't understand that. Listen and tell me whether you find the dissonance unsettling or pleasing, or perhaps not dissonant at all.




download (option-click for Mac users, right-click and save for PC users)
Recorded on February 11th, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

2 comments:

Naomi said...

I'm really fond of the new title theme. You should send them (i.e, Robert, Nina, and Linda) copies of their songs.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, that was Christian McNeil, not Naomi, who left that comment. I'm using Naomi's computer.