Whimsically Macabre Music: odd meters

Showing posts with label odd meters. Show all posts

Book of Spells: Guided Improvisation for Pianists

Now published! Available here:

https://pianopronto.com/composers-community/stacy-fahrion/stacy-fahrion-book-of-spells-guided-improvisation-for-pianists/

These twelve “spells” by Stacy Fahrion are designed to ease intermediate pianists of all ages into improvising in different imaginative ways, using different time signatures, modes, pentatonic scales, odd meters, and occasional 2:3 polyrhythms.

Each spell has at least one section where pianists have the opportunity to create their own melodies, using a suggested rhythm to help them get started. Most of the pieces feature an ostinato of some kind in the left hand.

Several of these pieces are inspired by the composer’s studies of North Indian ragas. This book is ideal for intermediate pianists who would like to learn to improvise and compose their own music, and is also a source of fresh ideas for students who are already improvising and composing.

Alien Dreamscapes in Just Intonation album is out now!

Now available on Bandcamp, Spotify, and all streaming services! Bonuses on Bandcamp include alien landscape coloring pages by Hannah Samano, and extensive liner notes with the story of the music of Aqualythia and the techniques used in each piece. Album art is by Kathleen Gordon.

Listen here: https://whimsicallymacabre.bandcamp.com/album/alien-dreamscapes-in-just-intonation

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0681KQyC8WXXCFyfqbC7ky?si=PyLkYBdpTp6eP1n9rTENeA

Disappearing, for Lumatone in 7-limit just intonation

I'll be performing on the Lumatone on Friday September 8th, 2023

at Leon Art Gallery as part of Playground Ensemble's Unchambered concert.

This piece is a structured improvisation centered around

layered 3:4:5 polyrhythms.

Info and tickets: https://www.playgroundensemble.org/unchambered

Only the Dirge Awakens the Dance - Del Sol Quartet

Was honored to be able to work with the wonderful San Francisco-based

Del Sol Quartet again last year on my third string quartet,

Only the Dirge Awakens the Dance. The piece features asymmetrical

rhythms and a little bit of 7-limit just intonation.

The title is from a poem by my friend and sometimes collaborator,

Wayne A. Gilbert.

\breaking/

Poems are never good news until they are cried over

The imagery lingers like nightmares daylight cannot smudge

Only the dirge awakens the dance

Cannot consume fiery pain

The words turn black on the sheet

Their warnings fade blue on blue

And the reader can inhale deeply

Unsmothering the wild winds

An alternate, longer title for this is

Only the Dirge Awakens the Dance:

Baby, Are You Ready to Party? 😁

Odin Quartet Performance!

Tomorrow night, February 19th, at 6pm Mountain Time, the Toronto-based

Odin Quartet will be giving 13 world premieres, including my piece,

Context Collapse.

Tune into Odin Quartet's Facebook Page for the livestream:

https://www.facebook.com/odinquartet

Khanda Etude in Janus 11-limit tuning - Stacy Fahrion

This piece is loosely based on a korvai that BC Manjunath taught in the 2020 International Rhythm Course. The left hand is consistently a 5-beat pattern, while the right hand is doing its own thing. The tuning is The Janus Scale, the same 11-limit tuning from Paul Johnson that I used for my last piece, Floating, but this piece is centered a tritone away on B-flat instead of E. Since it's called The Janus Scale, I wanted to write a contrasting piece to pair with Floating.

A Foretaste - by Stacy Fahrion

Sending love and light to all of you in these difficult times, and especially to my parents.
A Foretaste is the final etude in my upcoming Polyrhythms for Pianists book. It features a 5:4 polyrhythm, and is based on an F harmonic major scale with some excursions to F minor.

Undeserving - Stacy Fahrion

Undeserving cuts both ways.

George Floyd didn't deserve to be murdered by the police.

Breonna Taylor didn't deserve to have her home broken into
and to be shot to death by the police.

Elijah McClain didn't deserve to be put in a carotid chokehold
and injected with ketamine and have his life cut short by police.
The police don't deserve the power to harass and murder Black people with impunity.

What hurts others hurts us all. What lifts others up lifts us all up.
Black Lives Matter.

Sheet music for this piece is available here:

https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/undeserving-digital-sheet-music/21813726

I will donate 100% of my portion of the proceeds from sales of the sheet music to Campaign Zero. https://www.joincampaignzero.org/#vision