[NOTE: I have recorded a new version of this piece. This one is still valid, but I think the new one is better. You can find the new version here:
mysterybear.bandcamp.com/album/elegy-for-harold-budd-2023 ]
I didn't set out to write something to commemorate Harold Budd, but as this piece emerged, I realized that this was its purpose.
This piece was written using a six-note marva (sometimes rendered as "marwa") scale borrowed from the Indian classical tradition. Other than one section where the scale is transposed up a tritone in the Dvina part, only six notes -- with some octave transpositions -- are used. The scale is rendered in Kraig Grady's just intonation Centaur tuning.
I'm playing a bowed electroacoustic instrument called the Dvina. The accompaniment is played autonomously by a modular synthesizer system.
Track summary:
1. The complete piece
2. A different mix, with only the synths
3. Yet another mix, with only the Dvina
There is a video of performance of a slightly different version with beautiful visualizations by Greg Kowalski here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnrbXs9MAl8
released August 27, 2021
Dave Seidel: Dvina and electronics, composition, production.
I am playing the Dvina (
somasynths.com/dvina/) through a Hologram Electronics Microcosm looping/effects pedal and a Red Panda Context reverb. I have added tied frets for better intonation and am using a viola da gamba bow.
The rest of the sounds are generated autonomously by my Eurorack modular synth system. There are three separate parts:
- a bass part using Qu-Bit Scanned and Noise Engineering Loquelic Iteritas in unison, driven by a Make Noise Pressure Point plus Brains;
- a duet for two oscillators using Make Noise DPO driven by Rene
- a glitchy drone (I call it the "unhinged harmonium") using 4MS Spherical Wavetable Navigator
The modules are modulated by a number of other modules, particularly (but not exclusively) the Nonlinear Circuits Hyperchaos Deluxe. There are also a number of other modules used for sound modification. The bass part is also routed through an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man with Hazarai.
Recorded in Reaper using the following plugins: Eventide Blackhole & Ultratap; Waves S1, Vitamin, and Bauer Motion; Izotope Ozone.
Image credit:
pxhere.com/en/photo/1045238 (Creative Commons CC0)