Things have been quiet lately. In real life, not just on the blog. I’ve been saving up and settling into new surroundings. Writing some more music.
Filed under: Self-promotion, The Bunker by Ben.H
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Redundens 3g
Tuesday 28 April 2009
The series of works collectively titled Redundens was begun in 2001. All the pieces take Arnold Schoenberg’s Three Pieces for Piano, Op.11 as their starting point: only the top line in Schoenberg’s pieces is retained as an unaccompanied melody (or as a list of pitch classes if you’re more technically-minded.) Each set of pieces uses a different method of encoding this melody; by pitch, register, timbre, duration, dynamics, or other means.
Redundens 3g replaces each pitch class with a distinct dynamic proportional to a particular duration (the louder the longer) for a single, repeated sound played throughout – in this case, a set of four suspended cymbals.
Redundens 3g
- Streaming audio at The Listening Room.
- Download (8’08”, 16.19 MB, mp3)
Filed under: Music by Ben.H
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Redundens 7
Monday 27 April 2009
The series of works collectively titled Redundens was begun in 2001. All the pieces take Arnold Schoenberg’s Three Pieces for Piano, Op.11 as their starting point: only the top line in Schoenberg’s pieces is retained as an unaccompanied melody (or as a list of pitch classes if you’re more technically-minded.) Each set of pieces uses a different method of encoding this melody; by pitch, register, timbre, duration, dynamics, or other means.
Redundens 7 splits the melody of Redundens 4 for solo piano between two voices, alternating from one note to the next. The second voice is then shifted back one beat to produce a series of intervals. Unisons are played as a single note at half duration.
Redundens 7
- Streaming audio at The Listening Room.
- Download (4’46”, 7.32 MB, mp3)
Filed under: Music by Ben.H
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Please Mister Please
Friday 24 April 2009
Van Morrison, “Thirty Two” (1968).
(1’01”, 1.38 MB, mp3)
(1’01”, 1.38 MB, mp3)
Filed under: Please Mister Please by Ben.H
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The artist may not know, but the art knows for them
Thursday 23 April 2009
A while back On An Overgrown Path reproduced this image:
The image was made by the German photographer Alexander Lauterwasser, by transferring sound waves produced by music into water, and photographing the results using reflected light. In this case, the music was a piece by Karlheinz Stockhausen (sadly, there’s no information on which piece was used to create this image).
Pliable’s post compares and contrasts this image to those created by other sounds: how similar it is to the mantra Om, and how different it is to, say, Pierre Boulez‘s music. He also notes the similarity of many of the images to mandalas.
The first similarity that struck me was the resemblence to many of Stockhausen’s musical diagrams, particularly in his later music, with their use of spirals and concentric orbits. The latter half of his life was devoted to marking the cyclical aspects of time: years, seasons, months, days, and finally, hours.
These preoccupations are probably most clearly heard in his late piece Cosmic Pulses and subsequent works, each of which were designated “hours” in a 24-piece cycle titled Klang. Stockhausen’s summary diagram of Cosmic Pulses is reproduced on its CD cover, below left.
On the right is the cover for another recording from the Klang cycle, Natürliche Dauern. Cyclical and spiral patterns are a recurring feature on his CD designs. As well as a piece called Mantra, he wrote another called Spiral. He also drew his CV in the form of a Fibonacci spiral, his list of compositions growing and expanding ever outwards.
I’d really like to know which of Stockhausen’s sounds produced that image.
Filed under: Music by Ben.H
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Thank goodness! It was only a dream.
Wednesday 22 April 2009
Filed under: Stupidity by Ben.H
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Please Mister Please
Wednesday 15 April 2009
Dirty Three, “Everything’s Fucked” (1994).
(5’32”, 9.45 MB, mp3)
(5’32”, 9.45 MB, mp3)
Now streaming on the jukebox.
Filed under: Please Mister Please by Ben.H
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Brockley Farewell
Monday 13 April 2009
No more dormobiles, but this last visitor to my old home in South London has added a final twist to the whole, mysterious affair.
Filed under: The Bunker by Ben.H
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I Give Up
Saturday 11 April 2009
Beats me why Redundens 4 comes out all messed up in The Listening Room. It works fine on the player on my NetNewMusic page so if you want to hear it properly you can go there.
In the meantime, I’ve added Redundens 7 to The Listening Room, and it sounds perfectly fine. It’s very similar to Redundens 4, but then all the Redundens pieces strive to be as alike as possible.
Filed under: Music by Ben.H
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It’s a wonder I don’t get this stuff more often
Thursday 9 April 2009
At 19:09 07/04/2009, Stave Scout wrote:
Dear sir/madam
My name is stave scout and urgenly need some DRILLS to order
from your company.please email with the types of DRILLS you have in
stock for sale now.and the price and i will like to know what type of credit
card do you accept. I will be looking forward to hear from you soon.
Thanks
Regards,
stave
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your enquiry about DRILLS. I have a wide selection of reconditioned DRILLS and DRILLBITS for sale – from the most delicate surgical equipment to heavy machinery for vast construction projects (laparoscopy, shipping canals). Please inform me of what type of DRILLS you need and I’m sure I can arrange prompt delivery. I accept Mastercard.
Kind regards,
Filed under: Stupidity by Ben.H
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Pause
Tuesday 7 April 2009
The world won’t let me stay put. After having to move unexpectedly at the start of last year, it now turns out I need to find somewhere else to live in the next few weeks. Excuse me if updates are a bit spotty while I get a new place, broadband etc.
Filed under: The Bunker by Ben.H
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Please Mister Please
Sunday 5 April 2009
Richard Maxfield, “Cough Music” (1959).
(5’54”, 8.26 MB, mp3)
(5’54”, 8.26 MB, mp3)
Now streaming on the jukebox.
Filed under: Please Mister Please by Ben.H
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Another Voynich Enigma Cleared Up
Sunday 5 April 2009
After sorting out the true meaning behind the Voynich Manuscript, and uncovering the Voynich Manchester lurking in East London, another revelation. Thanks to the anonymous commenter who disclosed that the mysterious Edward-Kelley Lorem-Ipsum style curtains can be bought at Argos for £10 a pair.
In fact, they can be had for as low as £8.99 if you get them in terracotta, or for as much as £19.59 if you want them ‘natural’. Judging from the customer reviews on the website, they’re very popular with cheapskate landlords; but it beats me why anyone would voluntarily waste their time writing about stupid curtains on the internet.
Filed under: The Bunker by Ben.H
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The Giant Adenoid that Ate St James’s takes a step closer to reality
Thursday 2 April 2009
Now it turns out that this light bulb over the colonel’s head here is the same identical Osram light bulb that Franz Pokler used to sleep next to in his bunk at the underground rocket works at Nordhausen. Statistically (so Their story goes), every n-thousandth bulb is gonna be perfect, all the delta-q’s piling up just right, so we shouldn’t be surprised that his one’s still around, burning brightly. But the truth is even more stupendous. This bulb is immortal! It’s been around, in fact, since the twenties, has that old-timery point at the tip and is less pear-shaped than more contemporary bulbs….
Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow, pp.647.
Welcome to the homepage devoted to the Longest burning Light Bulb in history. Now in its 108th year of illumination.
First Meggezones, now this.
