7 Jan 2008, #4. Ophelia - 9m27s

First, I want to say that this might be my favorite yet. It has a wonderful arc, and a lovely, swirling, sad feeling.

As with "Miranda," I came into this piece knowing the first few measures. I composed a piece a few years ago that started very similarly, with repeated downward arpeggios, with the same inversion of a major triad for the first chord. That piece had quintuplet arpeggios, so I thought I'd try quadruplets for this one. Both pieces are about changing one note at a time, very slowly moving through a harmonic spectrum. (Using arpeggios instead of block chords gives them, paradoxically, both more movement and a more placid feeling, because there are many more notes per second, but they all run together so that the sound does not decay unless I let it.)

In this piece especially, I really just followed my fingers.

I spend the first 6 minutes almost completely above middle C, and the drop down is a relief, almost a comfort although the harmony is quite unsettled. The relief doesn't last long. This section (the last 3:35) feels utterly connected to the first six minutes, but it's completely different. I am no longer wandering from harmony to harmony; I've found my chord progression, and settle in to embellish and exhaust it. You could think of the last two or so minutes as one long Picardy third.


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Recorded on January 7th, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

New layout

I wanted to quickly thank Felicity J. Mackay for the wonderful photograph of my fingers that now adorns this blog! (Hopefully the new look won't turn too many people off.)

7 Jan 2008, #3b. Juliet, part II - 6m38s

I was almost embarrassed and disgusted with myself for playing something so cheesy as "Juliet, part I," so I wanted to continue and play something purposefully strident. I'm thrilled at what a tempestuous result I got, just from being actually angry and not holding back.

I could only keep up the pounding for so long, so I reined myself in and recalled the later tune from the first part, but reharmonized it sounds wonderfully pained and wistful.

(By the way, what I write here is usually not what I was thinking as I was playing. The ideas just come out of my fingers, and sometimes I don't even realize when I tie pieces together. They are wonderful subconscious accidents. Here at the blog I explain how those accidents must have happened.)


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Recorded on January 7th, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

7 Jan 2008, #3a. Juliet, part I - 6m46s

My third goal was to improvise while thinking about something specific (holding a specific picture in my mind - I'm not telling what). After two experimental starts, my hands just have to play something calm, normal. And so out comes this. Terribly sappy, isn't it?

Midway through I came up with a great groove in 5, but when I'm improvising, it's hard sometimes to remember that I'm in an odd meter, and my fingers got confused a bunch of times.


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Recorded on January 7th, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

Correction! "Saskatchewan"

A kind listener informed me that in my post for "Saskatchewan", I linked by mistake to the recording of "British Columbia" instead. I have fixed the original post (http://permutationsof88.blogspot.com/2008/01/10-dec-2007-1c-saskatchewan-8m06s.html, if you'd like to read about it again), and I have put it here, too. (For you podcast subscribers, don't worry – there was no mistake in the podcast feed, so you have heard the correct recording.)


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Recorded on December 10th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

7 Jan 2008, #2. Beatrice - 5m30s

I must confess something. I had already composed the first two bars of this piece when I sat down, and I also was thinking about the first two notes in the treble clef. But it quickly became much more than was in my head. Again, I started in a more experimental style, and yet I fall back into the blues mode. And, again, I am especially pleased with my failure.

(Here's where this project is meant to help my stamina: it is pretty obvious that, four minutes in, my left hand gets too tired to keep up the ostinato, so I give it to my right hand for a while, and my left hand struggles with some quarter notes. Hopefully in a few months I'll be able to play something like this without wearing out.)


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Recorded on January 7th, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

7 Jan 2008, #1. Miranda - 7m14s

A month passed between sessions, across the new year, and I listened to the Canada pieces many times, thinking about what I would do differently when it came time to record again. I had a few specific goals. First, I wanted to be more conscious of the length of the pieces. I wanted to try to wrap each one up before it reached the six-minute mark. I didn't plan to use a clock, but I hoped that my internal timers would work. Secondly, I wanted to be more adventurous in style, and commit more to each style. That is to say, I didn't want each piece to meander as much stylistically.

I finally got to record again on January 7, 2007. I don't think I reached all of my goals, but I couldn't be happier with the results.

For this effort, the first of the day, I tried to stay as far away from pop/blues as possible. I picked out a four-note motif, and was off. The cadence at around 3:15 I began regretting before I even played it, knowing I'd have to, but I think I made the best of a bad situation, and immediately searched for a dissonance to counter it.

The swung section at the 5 minute mark I am especially pleased with, even though it means that I failed at keeping it one style, and couldn't keep my hands off of yet another blues progression. Looking back, of course, it didn't help that my four-note motif outlines a E flat dominant nine chord. I guess that's where my head is.


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Recorded on January 7th, 2008, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

10 Dec 2007, #1e. Ontario - 4m30s

The end of "Manitoba" left me with a little compound ostinato for my left hand – three against two. After over twenty solid minutes with no break, my hand was a little tired, and the riff mutated from five to four notes (two on top, two on bottom). I tried to play with it, change from straight to swung, go back and forth from three against two to regular 4/4. I also tried to do a little phasing, just with one hand. Phasing one hand against the other is pretty difficult; phasing your left thumb against the rest of your left hand is REALLY difficult; and though I think I achieved something interesting, I didn't actually phase. It ends with a whimper rather than a bang.

This is one of the few pieces so far that I've edited quite a bit. I went on way too long, so on the computer I cut off a few (boring) minutes at the end. Trust me, it salvages the piece from the trash heap of dullness.


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Recorded on December 10th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

10 Dec 2007, #1d. Manitoba - 6m39s

Again, I start with some exploration. This time I'm stacking fifths into ninths, and I walk myself down into G, and back into a blues feel. The left hand is very laid back and comfortable, while the right has a little fire.

After about five minutes, this piece suddenly changes from cool and controlled to bustling, swooping, exciting – much like how I imagine Manitoba to be.

(For the best effect, go straight from "Manitoba" to "Ontario" with no break.)


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Recorded on December 10th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

10 Dec 2007, #1c. Saskatchewan - 8m06s

The Lydian mode is probably my favorite mode. For those of you non-theory inclined, a mode is simply a group of notes around which you can base a piece of music. Do you know your major scale? Then you know a mode. The Lydian mode is the major scale, except with a raised fourth degree. For instance, C Lydian is C major but with an F# instead of an F. Pretty simple. I like Lydian because it has a very airy feel, and sort of anticipatory, as if you're almost somewhere, but not quite. (That's because of the raised fourth, which makes it sound like we're in IV of I and are ready, at any moment, to resolve to I. But we don't. Because we're already in the tonic.)

This piece, "Saskatchewan," starts in B Lydian. Adding to the dreamy, uncertain quality is the rhythm of the ostinato, which can either be in 6 or in 3, depending on what you hear. It's not until 1:41 that the first "dissonant" (out-of-mode) note is played, and it's another minute before the next, which actually was a mistake, but convinced me to begin exploring outward. There's a long way to go from there...


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Recorded on December 10th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

10 Dec 2007, #1b. Alberta - 3m34s

I can start a good groove going, but I always have to give something up when I want to start improvising over it with my right hand. This groove was simple and spare enough that I could add a melody without losing much at all. Maybe because of that, there wasn't much I could find to do with it, and it didn't take long for me to look elsewhere...


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Recorded on December 10th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

10 Dec 2007, #1a. British Columbia - 3m12s

And so we start the second day of improv sessions, recorded six days after the first. I sat down with great aspirations to go in a different direction. I set my fingers off on what I hoped would be a atonal, Hindemithy journey, but they quickly found something much more comfortable.

(I can tell that this was the first thing I played that day, because I sound relaxed and fresh. As each session goes on, I tend to get more frenzied, of course sloppier, but also more/too inventive, to a point where it is almost predictably inventive, if that makes any sense.)


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Recorded on December 10th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

Canada II - the second session

Thank you to everyone for listening, commenting, and demanding that I continue with this project! I am still trying to find the right balance of things – I haven't yet settled into a perfect routine. It was suggested to me that long pieces (over 6 minutes or so) are less appealing. Of course, then, the one good piece from my December 10th session is 26 minutes long! (It was disheartening that my second session yielded less than half what I got from my first, but never fear, my recent third session got me another hour of usable improvs.) The 26 minutes wandered from style to style, so it was easy to chop it up into five digestible pieces. Of course, it's best if you line them up in iTunes and let them flow, uninterrupted, but I understand if you can't do that.

P.S. I had five perfectly good provinces left, so these will be grouped as Canada II. After this, though, each day's sessions will have its own category.

P.P.S. For whatever reason, one of the H4's microphones (of the stereo pair) was clipping like crazy, so all of the Canada II recordings are mono.

4 Dec 2007, #6: "Puerto Rico" - 2m01s

This is the last thing I played in this session, a little dance for my fingers, kind of like a dessert for them after a tough day's work. It's simple and silly, but some fun rhythmic play. The throwaway nature is why it doesn't get a Canada name, and the Latin in it is why I am calling it "Puerto Rico." Listen closely for the Ice Cream Truck theme.


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Recorded on December 4th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

4 Dec 2007, #5c: "Nunavut" - 6m43s

My favorite from the day's sessions, by far. So atmospheric and cool. I did a good job of sticking with the three-chord motive all the way through the piece. I'm also really happy with the dark harmonies and the dissonance. It never got away from me - meanderings in the right spots, to provide space. I feel like I fully explored the possibilities with those chord combinations, but it doesn't feel repetitive. A complete success, in my book.


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Recorded on December 4th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

4 Dec 2007, #5b: "Northwest Territories" - 4m16s

The restart didn't necessarily work – there is still a rather urgent feeling to it. I found a restless pulse in it, and soon enough, it became a blues.

(Notice at around the two-minute mark, I haven't perfected tapping my foot and playing at the same time.)


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Recorded on December 4th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

4 Dec 2007, #5a: "Yukon" - 2m02s

Definitely an "In a Silent Way" vibe. I think that I was trying to stay away from the bombast of the previous takes. It still got away from me a bit, so I think I ended it quickly and tried to start over, in 5b, with a calmer energy.


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Recorded on December 4th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

4 Dec 2007, #4b: "Labrador" - 6m58s

I seriously considered releasing the first 3 minutes of this as its own piece, titled "and." It's just an exploration of space. There's a lot of silence, and only two chords, IV and I, kind of a plagal cadence repeated over and over again with slight adjustments. Finally at around 3:12 it settles into a groove and gets a little funky. That's the "Labrador" part. You can hear my foot keeping time. I think I had some left over energy from "Quebec," because I end up banging pretty hard (and it will probably clip a bit – sorry about that).

The pianists among you will know that F# major is close to the most difficult to jam in. I don't know why I picked it.


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Recorded on December 4th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

4 Dec 2007, #4a: "Newfoundland" - 5m41s

First, let me say that in the first 24 hours of this blog, I am really happy with the response! Thank you to everyone who has already listened and written me. So I figure I'll post the next piece a little sooner than I had planned. As in, right now...

This is a twelve minute piece that I have split in two. The first section, in F# major, starts very peacefully. About two minutes in, I add a little Mixolydian flavor (some flat sevenths), and it seems to shake the piece out of its doldrums just a bit. It keeps churning and settling and churning, with additional notes outside the mode adding some unrest, but the climax is pretty much just Mixolydian. It dies down, and segues directly into #4b: Labrador.


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Recorded on December 4th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

4 Dec 2007, #3: "Quebec" - 10m42s

I had just sat down for about 15 minutes and ripped off a killer improvisation, only to get up and realize that the recorder was not recording. So I sat down again and played this. I don't remember what I lost, but I must have been cheesed off about it, because I start pounding the keys pretty hard.


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Recorded on December 4th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

4 Dec 2007, #2b: "New Brunswick" - 5m48s

Immediately much bluer than #2a (Nova Scotia); in fact it's a sort of blues structure: I | I | II | IV . I think I tried to stay as calm as possible, but it began to build up, and the blues noodling got bigger and bigger. I went out on a slightly manic riff over repeated descending bass line.
(At the beginning, I had a little trouble playing the syncopated rhythm with just my left hand, and kept switching accidentally between a syncopated right and left.)


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Recorded on December 4th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

4 Dec 2007, #2a: "Nova Scotia" - 6m06s

This was my first real attempt. I began by outlining a G major chord, found a rhythmic ostinato, and slowly added notes in the scale. I then began changing the harmony from IV to I a few times, then to V, and back to I. The only notes outside of the mode are a few F naturals in the bass line. Eventually I found a scrap of the ostinato to focus on and embellish with some Lydian noodling, and it became IV and V of D; I ended it suddenly.


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Recorded on December 4th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

4 Dec 2007, #1: "Prince Edward Island" - 0m28s

This is the first take from my first improv session. It is mostly to get to know the piano, and to calibrate the recorder and my fingers. Short and sweet.


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Recorded on December 4th, 2007, at Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, OR, with a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. Edited with Audacity music software.

Introduction

          Welcome to this nascent blog and podcast! Permutations of 88 is, like it says, a series of piano improvisations performed by me, Mont Christopher Hubbard. Each one is completely off the top of my head — nothing is planned. I sit down at the piano and let my fingers do the thinking.
          So far, my process when I improvise is to find a simple feeling, perhaps in a mode or chord progression, and slowly explore it. Over time certain ideas will emerge, evolve, and/or disappear. It tends to be a slow process. There is a lot of meandering, passing by ninety-nine notes before I continue through the hundredth. With practice I may reduce that number to 50, or 25. We will see.
          My inspiration is largely Keith Jarrett's 1975 album, The Köln Concert, a live recording of an improvised performance. I suppose it is the gold standard for this sort of thing. Other influences you may hear: Eric Satie (repetition), Charles Ives (discord), Dmitri Shostakovich (rambunctiousness). I'm sure you will hear others which I am unaware of.
          I started this project mostly to get myself to play more and improve. Of course, though, I am also hoping that people will listen and be stimulated in some way by these recordings, either intellectually or emotionally. If it is either, I hope you will share your thoughts and questions by posting comments on entries. If this prompts any sort of discussion on the art of improvising, or music in general, I will be pleased as punch! (Also, if you have ideas on how to improve this blog and podcast, please do not hesitate to suggest them.)
          So let me thank you in advance for listening. To start us out I have posted 23 minutes of music in three pieces, from my first session, in December. I have another 24 ready to go from that session, and 26 from a second December session. I will try to post new recordings every week, and I can only hope that you will come back to listen each time. To make it easier, I'm also releasing the recordings as a podcast - the links can be found to your right.

Sincerely,
Mont Chris Hubbard


Notes:

1. You'll probably notice the titles I've given to the pieces. It was suggested to me by my brother that they needed more than just dates and numbers. I tried naming them based on content, but it was too serious, and they were silly names, like "Blue Morning" and "Daylight Suprise." So instead, each group of pieces will get their titles from well-known groups of things. The first group is Canadian Provinces (plus one that's not).

2. Here is all of the technical info: The first two sessions were recorded on a Zoom H4 Digital Recorder. I had a few slight issues with the gain; as a result, there is a bit of clipping which can't be fixed. I felt that the clipped recordings were still worth presenting. The files were edited using a program called Audacity. Most of them are basically untouched besides cropping of opening and closing silence, as well as some gain adjustment. However, there are a couple stops and starts edited out. If you can hear them, I will admit to them.
     I have hopes that future sessions will be of higher quality, but for right now I must make do with what I've got.

3. Finally, I must extend a large thank you to Kerby Lauderdale and Peace Church of the Brethren, in Portland, Oregon, for allowing me to record there.