Débandade (for String Quartet)

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Débandade, for string quartet, was written to commemorate the transfer of the Tom Lea painting, ‘Stampede’ to the Ellen Noel Art Museum in Odessa, Texas. 

Integrated Frequency 1 - Melody

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Melody

This is a single melodic line, stretching over the span of a several-octave overtone scale.  Using the melody canonically in R40, R60, R120, R160, and R200, the lines create counterpoint against each other.

R60 and R40 are related.  R40, in this instance represents tonic and R60 represents Dominant.

(For more information, please see my article, Integrated Frequency)

Integrated Frequency 1 - Harmony

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Harmony

In this experiment I took a traditional harmonic progression derived from a single overtone scale, in an arpeggiated pattern, and distributed it to other related overtone scales, in their corresponding tempo families.

I used R40, R120, R160, and R200 in their tempo family of 75BPM and 150BMP.  I used R60 and R120 in their tempo family of 112.5BPM.   

The corresponding relationships created by the harmonic progression in multiple overtone scales and corresponding tempos creates polytonality and polytempo.

I kept R60 in 75BPM to experiment with a Tonic/Dominant relationship between the two instances of R40, then R60.  R60 is derived from the 3rd overtone of the root frequency of .3125Hz.  The third overtone is the ‘fifth’ scale degree.  So, the chord progression was played in R40 (Tonic), then it was played in R60 (Dominant) in the same tempo, then finally back to R40 (Tonic).

Integrated Frequency 1 - Rhythm, Bass

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Rhythm/Bass 

This was an experiment in two different overtone scale/rhythms: R5/R10 against R30/R60.  The familiar rock style is challenged by the convergence of the two tempos and scales, creating polytonal and polytempo moments.

Only two compositional components were used to create this piece: a bass pattern and a rhythm pattern.

(For more information, please see my article, Integrated Frequency)