Monday, March 9, 2009

Canon on two different rhythmic techniques

I'm trying to find less common ways to make canons. In this one I've used another rhythmic technique from the arsenal of Milton Babbitt. This one is the time-point system.

Essentially, the system sets up a series of time points upon which the rhythm of a piece is built. A series of numbers is again used for the rhythmic materials but this series refers to points on a time continuum. I've chosen six points (0 to 5) in each measure of 6/8 time.

The numbers are then used as they occur in the series. Babbitt has used this technique with 12 time points as a parallel to the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale. It enables him to perform the same operations on rhythm as he does on pitch.

Again, I'm not trying to imitate Babbit's sound or technique here -- just borrowing an interesting idea to use in my own way...

I've decided to make my canon from both the time-point system and duration rows (introduced a few days back).

I've chosen a rhythmic row 1, 5, 3, 4, 2 and turned it into a palindrome by using O. I, RI, R:

15342, 51324, 42315, 24351

I treated this series a duration row in the upper part and in time-points for the lower part.

So, the same numbers form both parts but they are quite different. I have a feeling that this type of idea may be fertile ground for me when I reintroduce pitch to my canons in a few days.

(click on image to enlarge)

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