Tonal Chance Music

This is a piece for 2 pianos. Its in C, but I make extensive use of tone clusters. The harmony is not functional, its gestural. Piano 1 is a simple melody (D-Bb-A-Bb). For piano 2, I simply hit record and played whatever came to me (with the only the use of gestures, and tonal centre C, planned ahead of time). You can listen to/download the song here Pat Coffey on purevolume™ also, a score is attached to this post.

i enjoyed this piece very much! the only thing i think i would have done differently - is the piano 1, it could've been more louder at places. but i really liked the clusters, and timing was great. nice one.
yeah, and i think you have the same midi controller as i do

...damn finale 2008. i have 2007. THEY REALLY NEED TO WORK ON DOWN SAVING!

Thanks pliorius, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Which controller do you have? The Edirol or the M-Audio?

..damn finale 2008. i have 2007. THEY REALLY NEED TO WORK ON DOWN SAVING!

I could upload a MIDI if that would be helpful.

I'd love a MIDI too, or even (much) better, a PDF.

That shirt you're wearing on your pure volume page, that wouldn't happen to be a Boston Crusaders shirt, would it?

I couldn't seem to make a PDF will Finale Notepad, but I have the MIDI. I also have a screenshot of the Reason file* open, I include it because it would work very well as a graphic score. I captures my gestures in a way that I really like.


The shirt I wear in my pic is a James Ready shirt, its a Canadian beer.








*I record in Reason 4. I have tried to upload the reason file, but it wouldn't allow me to. I could post it with something like sendspace or another free server if anybody is interested.

Ha! I enjoyed this! It's like shutting Philip Glass and John Cage into the same room and having them duel each other on pianos (of course you'd have to take out the black keys before allowing Cage to his piano. And take away any screws and rubber he might have in his pockets, or he'll put them between the strings)

Nice concept too: a very simple and straightforward answer to the ever-present question of variety vs. unity, by totally isolating those two elements on two different instruments and exposing them at their extreme forms: Quasi-free improvisation and a simple repeated motive. And simple answers are good, if they work, which they do here.

Contrary to pliorius I never wished for the first piano to be louder. I mean, after all you know this motive after a while, so all you need to know as a listener is that "it's still there". It might become annoying with time if it was too strong (which might also be a compositorial goal of course).

Did you have any spacial placement in mind for this? Like positioning the two pianos at different places in a room? I think that might even add to the concept of separating the two musical elements of chance/expression/variety and order/structure/uniformity.

Thanks Gardener.

The idea behind the second piano is that the listener knows its there, there is however meant to be a certain amount of blend between them. I have many different piano patches, but used the exact same ones so that I could get that blend when piano 2 comes across piano 1's range.

I like your thoughts about piano placement. I am primarily a recording artist, in that I record everything I write often as I write it, so I tend to forget about live performance. Now that I do think about it, placing the pianos right next to each other but, with the performers have their backs to one another. That would allow the sounds to blend at times, but create a visual independence.

Any chance for an mp3 please? I can't listen to midi, my soundcard doesn't have GM...