Piece for Four Guitars

This is a recording, I made, of a piece I wrote in collaboration with the other three performers, who also appear on the recording. I came to them with a few rough sketches for the form (climaxes, ideas for motivic development and transformation etc.), and the first 3 and last 5 minutes pretty much entirely pre-written, and then we worked out the middle as a group (and changed a few things in the beginning and end).

The guitars are all in scordatura (with the lowest pitch string highest on the page, as it is on the guitar, scientific pitch, then cents (1/100th of a semitone) up or down from 12-note equal temperament, rounded to the nearest cent for here):

Guitar 1:

D2 +/-0

F#2 - 14

Bb2 + 40

D3 +/-0

F#3 - 14

Bb3 + 40

Guitar 2:

Eb2 +5

G2 -30

B2 +6

Eb3 +5

G3 -30

B3 +6

Guitar 3:

E2 +4

G#2 -48

C2 -32

E3 +4

G#3 -48

C3 -32

Guitar 4:

F2 -3

A2 -2

C#2 -12

F3 -3

A3 -2

C#3 -12

The guitars are tuned to the first 12 unique pitch classes in the harmonic series of D (the lowest open string), except for a second tritone (+23 cents) and minor 6th (-27 cents), so that you get a 12-note scale similar to 12-tet. In other words, all the odd partials from 1 (fundamental) to 27 except 23 and 25. These harmonics are then transposed into the lowest 2 octaves near the fundamental (though of course they can always be played higher through the use of harmonics, and freting).

The scale looks like this (reading from lowest to highest), with cents different from 12-tet again:

D2 +/-0 (gtr. 1)

Eb2 +5 (gtr. 2)

E2 +4 (gtr. 3)

F2 -3 (gtr. 4)

F#2 - 14 (gtr. 1)

G2 -30 (gtr. 2)

G#2 -48 (gtr. 3)

A2 -2 (gtr. 4)

Bb2 + 40 (gtr. 1)

B2 +6 (gtr. 2)

C2 -32 (gtr. 3)

C#2 -12 (gtr. 4)

then of course another octave of open strings, and then another of freted notes, then two or more (depending on the players) octaves of notes available with harmonics. So you have 5-6 octaves of range)

Then you have the frets, allowing this scale to be transposed to all of the 12-tet notes, along with many other possible intervals. There are 144 intervals per octave, after the first octave, not including all the additional intervals available with harmonics.

As for the piece it self, it's a heavily structured improvisation, or open composition (as all compositions are really...) With some sections more set than others, ranging from every aspect under pre-coordinated control (pitch, rhythm, dynamics, timbre etc), to sections of nearly free improvisation. The sections flow into each other in a variety of ways, and some are inter-related in various ways, others are not (at least not intentional, I'm sure they are). The piece starts at a high, tension-filled, point of loud dynamics and only indeterminately pitched sounds, and moves to a relaxed ending with only pure tones (mostly harmonics), generally softer dynamics, and a slow overall tempo, though not in a strictly linear way of course.

I can't post a score, because it is handwritten, and I don't have a scanner (it's also in pencil). But alot of it might be difficult to understand, because it was more shorthand for the performer/composers, to save space on the music stand. Besides, I think it is much more interesting not knowing the processes used to create each section, and to just listen to the music as music.

Hope people listen, and I would love any kind of feedback, or criticism! I'm sure this post makes little sense, so if people want more information about anything, just ask, and I'll do my best to explain (which I'm obviously not so great at doing).

Ah also, we recorded this onto a tape 4-track (old), for fun, so there's a far amount of tape hiss, hopefully this won't bother you, I find it soothing personally.

Piece for Four Guitars

A bit of this sounds like a quarter-tone prelude... I guess that was kind of the intention, really :santa: . I couldn't say much about this, it definitely sounds like a structured improvisation, there are some cool elements as well. Nice recording as well!