Twelve Ways of Thinking for 12 instruments

In this work I serialised my harmonic system, metre and tempi so that using two rows from Webern and classical and harmonic minor modes I obtained 12 chords in 12 diferent metres and 12 different tempi for 12 sections. Each section I tried to be a different combination of elements from texture and/or rhythm. I perhaps should have thought of 12 different modulations. The last two sections are a modified/enriched recapitulation of the first two. I think the overall result is a mostly meditative piece.

Music must serve a purpose. In this case, it is the output of a function. You have serialized some aspects of it (meter, tempo, pitch) and organized them by groups of 12, which is quite innovative. The result is 11 minutes of soundscape that is not altogether unpleasant, although it is not without its issues.

The chords are nondiatonic: dissonant and exotic but, as is the case with strictly nondiatonic harmonies, the ear longs for cadential moments. A pause, a turn—anything to suggest we have a bit of resolution. This piece, while meditative and brooding, does little to provide us that. For 11 long minutes the harmonies drone on and on, rarely straying from the same oblique motion. That is one of my greatest critques of this work: please try to alter the harmonic motion from time to time or your music will sound stagnant and somewhat boring.

A closely related issue is the lack of counterpoint. As I just mentioned, most of the harmonic motion is oblique, meaning that opportunities for counterpoint are diminished. There are some instances of counterpoint here, but not nearly enough to maintain interest, in my opinion.

Finally, although it is not within my power to declare that "serialism is dead," I do think serialism should be approached carefully in our modern times. I believe that what you have done here is a good example of how serialism can be applied to contemporary compositions. For serialist music, this is actually rather enjoyable!

Thank you for sharing, and I look forward to more of your works!

Best,
Jörfi

4 hours ago, Tónskáld said:

Music must serve a purpose. In this case, it is the output of a function. You have serialized some aspects of it (meter, tempo, pitch) and organized them by groups of 12, which is quite innovative. The result is 11 minutes of soundscape that is not altogether unpleasant, although it is not without its issues.

The chords are nondiatonic: dissonant and exotic but, as is the case with strictly nondiatonic harmonies, the ear longs for cadential moments. A pause, a turn—anything to suggest we have a bit of resolution. This piece, while meditative and brooding, does little to provide us that. For 11 long minutes the harmonies drone on and on, rarely straying from the same oblique motion. That is one of my greatest critques of this work: please try to alter the harmonic motion from time to time or your music will sound stagnant and somewhat boring.

A closely related issue is the lack of counterpoint. As I just mentioned, most of the harmonic motion is oblique, meaning that opportunities for counterpoint are diminished. There are some instances of counterpoint here, but not nearly enough to maintain interest, in my opinion.

Finally, although it is not within my power to declare that "serialism is dead," I do think serialism should be approached carefully in our modern times. I believe that what you have done here is a good example of how serialism can be applied to contemporary compositions. For serialist music, this is actually rather enjoyable!

Thank you for sharing, and I look forward to more of your works!

Best,
Jörfi

Thank you for the review. My view on serialism is that it works only at larger structural levels and it is better for the lower surface levels to be done intutively / undeterministically if you want the result to sound natural. For example If you want to serialise rhythm its better to generate collections of rhythms and serialise the use of those than serialising individual durations and rhythms.

About the chords, they are derived from combining two diatonic modes (with their important notes prioratized) each which produces often non-diatonic collections but retain some familirarity I think.

About the counterpoint: I used to use too much, generating very dense polyphonic textures, maybe I went the other way in this now!

I think it definitely can be improved in some ways you suggested with more focused phrasal structures and pseudo-cadences of various kinds so that the flow is less continued and the music breathes.

18 hours ago, Tónskáld said:

The chords are nondiatonic: dissonant and exotic but, as is the case with strictly nondiatonic harmonies, the ear longs for cadential moments. A pause, a turn—anything to suggest we have a bit of resolution. This piece, while meditative and brooding, does little to provide us that. For 11 long minutes the harmonies drone on and on, rarely straying from the same oblique motion. That is one of my greatest critques of this work: please try to alter the harmonic motion from time to time or your music will sound stagnant and somewhat boring.

I feel you've raised the most important issues and why serialism has been superseded by a return to plain atonality or partial atonality because one is less restrained by linguistic rules- by which I mean: set up linguistic rules uniquely for a particular composition, but don't expect the listener to be able to interpret what results. (A little like listening to a news cast in a completely unfamiliar foreign language. The sound of the language might appeal even if the listener has no chance grasping a meaning.).

Having said that, it may appeal to those who can just listen with zero expectations but as Tonskald said, they're few and far between and there are always some expectations no matter what. A silence here and there for example. True, you thin out to a solo note here and there, like dead-on 5'00" and that was welcome...but then it reverts to its unchanging slow tempo. One might hope that what followed was episodically different.

I sat through about 5 1/2 minutes hoping for a noticeable variation in tempo and dynamic but it was not to be. 

There are some lovely moments in it sound-wise nonetheless but more because of the combination your rules landed on than serialism itself. I wish you well with your underlying aims which will no doubt appeal to a few who appreciate them. 

Edit (I should add that more variation in dynamics, particularly instrument entries being more pronounced, may help but these will probably break your rules.)