reverse stagger

February 2 at DMG

DOWNLOAD one PDF per clef or transposition

NOTES (for everyone)
Conducting Signals

Concert
Flute
Bass Clef (includes two versions in different octaves)
Bb
Eb
Alto Clef

The initial three pages maps our core material.

The additional two pages, called stacks, are on hold, so don’t weigh in on those..

Two major patterns are in play here.

Lines 1 & 2 together make a composite pattern consisting of three 12 beat phrases numbered as locations 1, 2 & 3. This repeats exactly, identified as locations 4, 5 & 6. It could have more clearly notated in 6/4, but it’s notated in 4/4 so as to emphasize the curves & impacts of lines 3 & 4.

Lines 3 & 4 repeat a rhythmic pattern of two measures of 4/4, but the pitches complete their melodic cycle in six bars. This pattern exactly repeats three times.

So, we have an overall slow pattern of two phrases (lines 1+2) concurrent with three phrases (lines 3+4). This means that a lot of relationships get turned around throughout the cycle.

It seems simple enough, but there are plenty of opportunities to get unexpectedly disoriented — which is why I always recommend getting these patterns in your ear ahead of playing them ensemble, if you can; hence the audio sample:

///\\\/////\\\\\

AUDIO SIMULATION OF COMPOSITE SOUND

||>>^^^|||\\\——/

 

For those of you who’ve already been with the group for a minute, it might be fun to know that this is yet another variation of rough hue. I’ve been trying to open it up some more (it has a tendency to get just a little too rote & stuck for my taste), and some tinkering has yielded this divergence.

In this case, I’m focusing just on a loop of measures 3 & 1.

This is where the “reverse stagger” comes in. You can see below that six beats get sounded, then we “backloop” four beats and move ahead for 6 more beats, crossing into the next measure, and the motion repeats over & over again until it returns to the first measure (a.k.a. the top of the cycle). 

Then, I applied some crosscutting to lines 2+3 to diffuse the effects of way too obvious repetition and to add space to the flow. It ends up describing a much slower tempo feel than line 1.

But then, instead of unfolding this through the entire 6 step whole tone pattern, I limited the pitch motion in lines 2+3 to just the first 3 pitches (C#, B, A). Then, line 1 transposes to adapt to the backward staggered bass motion, which keeps the interval relations (or “sound”) consistent but releases an overall different, and more extended, melody in line 1 than in rough hue while remembering its flavor.

Along with all this rearranging, some other patterns emerged, which might further inform our improvising. There are six internal rhymes, or phrase repetitions, that might be played with. They’re color coded here. In each case, the answering repetition sounds a major 2nd higher than the initial phrase.