Saxophone, computer, and multispeaker sound system
This is the second piece recently that I revisit James Tenney. It is an experiment in translating pitch distance to physical auditory space using Tenney's theory of harmonic space and the underlying concept of harmonic distance. Tenney devised an algorithm with which he created nearly symmetrical lattices of interrelated pitches, in which each pitch has a harmonic relationship to its surroundings, the fundamental being at the center. If the grid is constrained within the 7-limit he called it a 3,5,7-space and this is what this piece departs from. From the grid I constructed a series of somewhat symmetrical 4-note chords all sharing the same fundamental, and a few transpositions of one chord from three closely related pitches (3/2, 9/8 and 7/4). Each note in the grid is assigned a spatialized position relative to its position in the grid with the result that pitches at a low harmonic distance from the fundamental (octaves and fifths) are closer to the center of the physical space than more distant intervals. The saxophone is playing the fundamental from which the other pitches are generated in real time.