12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 216

Date: 08/04/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

The use of singing through my horn as a means toward sound-color creation is a concept I’ve worked with for some time now. In today’s improvisation, I began with a steady chord created by singing a Concert Db through my horn. This Db became a drone throughout most of the improvisation, and then I focused on 3 sound areas that incorporated the drone in order to create an environment dependent on the sining. The first sound area created was an open, almost tuvan throat-singing pitch series built off of perfect Fifth and Fourths. By taking away a single key, an opposing, second sound world emerges with tight pitch clusters and fainter, more dissonant overtones. I generally moved between these two fingerings/sound worlds during this piece. Lastly, a third pitch series with still tighter, but more muted tone clusters emerges.

At the mid point of the improvisation I began fracturing the first sound world by incorporating pockets of higher tone clusters. From this point I also began to diverge from a more controlled atmosphere and began to create busier, more fractured pitch relations. I then began to sing between the constant Db drone and an Eb a whole step above it, before returning at the improvisation’s close again at the Db.

-Neil

The fingerings used were as follows:

Sound world 1. Pitches in ascending order: (Sing the low Db constantly. Above it were Ab, Db. The Db in the mid register was also sung at times along with the Db in the lower octave).

B-A-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-D keys, Low Eb, Side Bb

Sound world 2. Pitches in ascending order: Sing the low Db constantly. Above it were Eb and G

B-A-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-D keys, Low Eb

Sound world 3. Pitches in ascending order: Sing the low Db constantly. Above it were Low octave Eb and middle octave D, E and upper octave Bb).

B-A-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Low Eb, Low C.

-Neil

The image “Metaesquema No. 179” accompanying today’s post by Helio Oiticica (1957).