folding un folding harmonics (2024)

Max/MSP/Jitter, Ableton Live, Kontakt. 12 minutes.

An audiovisual essay about space, time, and impossible pianos.

we hear the interaction of one hundred triangle waveforms
fifty on one side. fifty on another side

the result determines the events you hear
the position of each sound in time and space
each note's pitch and tuning
decided simultaneously by an algorithmic process

the computer listens to the results and translates the sound to that of a piano
a detuned piano
an almost impossible piano

someone told me this reminds them of the Rhythmicon
an instrument developed in 1930-31 by the Russian inventor Leon Theremin for the American composer Henry Cowell

Henry Cowell also wanted to hear impossible pianos
he wanted to hear things human performers would be unable to play
because of rhythmic complexity  
but also because of the physical limitations imposed by the human body in relation to the instrument itself

Theremin and Cowell's Rhythmicon has been described as the world's first drum machine
it was made using spinning metal discs, light sensors, and simple electronics
a lowest, or fundamental, pitch is chosen
the rhythms of the other notes are a product of that fundamental's overtone (or harmonic) series

for example, the first harmonic of any note is that of an octave: the note's pitch is doubled
in the case of the Rhythmicon, the second note on the instrument produces a 'beat' double the speed of the first

a very similar process is operating in this piece
all pitches, and the placement of events in time, are a function of a harmonic series based on the lowest note

it can go faster, or slower
it can be higher, or lower
changing over time
or staying the same

to me it feels like predicting or understanding it is within reach, yet remains slightly out of reach

Steve Reich was right when he said such a process, "opens my ears to it, but it always extends farther than I can hear."

sound from just over the horizon

we hear the folding and unfolding of harmonics