'Multiple tempi'

Messages in this thread

Multiple tempi - Janek, 26 Nov 05:09PM
     Re: Multiple tempi - Laurence Payne, 26 Nov 05:38PM
         Re: Multiple tempi - Janek, 02 Dec 07:42AM

Multiple tempi
Posted by Janek - 26 Nov 05:09PM
hi,
I'm in a process of writing an orchestral piece that begins with a long percussion intro. The thing is I'd love to have instruments playing in different tempi. One slightly slower then the other, that way so they synchronise and desinchronize. I tried to accomplish it through using tuplets and it seems to work playback wise, but the score looks terrible. There are too many notes per page and it's one big mess. The way I image in is to have 4/4 time signature and have bar lines and nots not vertically aligned, but have them "meet" at some points. I attach the beginning of my piece, so You know how it looks for now. any ideas and suggestions? This part of piece is not to be conducted but played by musicians with a click in the ear.
thanks,
Jan
Attachment taj16_bit.png (107K)
Back to top | All threads
 
Re: Multiple tempi
Posted by Laurence Payne - 26 Nov 05:38PM (edited 26 Nov 06:43PM)
Forget about getting a score that looks AND plays right!

Score the lines independently. They probably won't align nicely line-against-line without messy incomplete bars, so just write seperate blocks on the page.

The easiest way to get playback, if you need it, will be to Export Audio (or MIDI) of each line independently and dump them into a sequencer that does time stretching.

You may well find the players quite capable of performing their parts without clicks, particularly if there can be some freedom in how many times a pattern is repeated until hitting a meeting point. We live in a post-Philip Glass (post-Charles Ives even) musical world!

One afterthought: If this compositional idea proves to be more interesting as a concept than as music, feel free to discard it :-)
Back to top | All threads
 
Re: Multiple tempi
Posted by Janek - 02 Dec 07:42AM
thanks! oh, by writing that i'd love to have instruments playing in a different tempi, I meant paling for real, not in sibelius. I don't care about playback, really. Well, it helps sometimes...Yes, I know we live in a post Glass, Reich, Ives, world. But also post aleatoric music world? The last thing I want is musicians to improvise on given material:)
could you please explain what you meant by separate blocks? as if in graphic scores?
Jan
Back to top | All threads
 

Quick reply

To add a reply to the end of this thread, type it below, then click Reply.

(.sib, .png and .jpg only)

Messages in this thread

Multiple tempi - Janek, 26 Nov 05:09PM
     Re: Multiple tempi - Laurence Payne, 26 Nov 05:38PM
         Re: Multiple tempi - Janek, 02 Dec 07:42AM