[BIO] Sonance

[BIO]Sonance

Duration: 03:32

Instrumentation: Percussion Trio, Fixed Electronics

Technical Specifications: .wav 48kHz stereo audio, HD 1080p video

Performer: Gordon Fry

Throughout BIO[Sonance] I sought to create and maintain an information-based conversation between ‘players’, and between player and listener, without relying on pitch/harmonic activity to drive musical discourse and complexity. This was an attempt to capture an arrhythmic, emergent rhythmical structure emulating the sound of insects, and of the emergent night right after dusk.

The piece begins in a straight-ahead dialogue between the three instruments, before experiments with a movable downbeat (through the employment of hemiolas) in the woodblocks early in the piece. Next, each player moves towards playing independently, with the Wood Block and Bongos operating in 3/4 time, overtop of the tenor drum at 7/8. This creates the beginning of a disconnection phase between the three instruments. No longer in dialogue, they begin to make use of more advanced polyrhythms and nested tuplets to further the sense of disconnection.

From letter E onwards, a 4/4 groove begins in the bongo part, roughly modelled on a rumba groove. The groove is frequently interrupted by the other instruments through arrhythmic interjections. This frequent interruption of a groove creates unexpected rhythmical cadences. More metric modulations are employed in this section to create a double-time feel on certain bars for dramatic effect and to ramp up energy.

At letter F, the second usage of multiple time signatures begins, this time employing overlapping phrase cycles as a compositional device. The bongo part keeps the groove constant in 4/4, while the woodblock and tenor drum riff in 3/4 and 6/8 respectively. The wood block's phrases expand with each entrance from 3 to 5, to 7, while the tenor drum keeps a three-bar phrase structure to avoiding overwhelming the musical texture.

The piece ends in a fluid dialogue as it began.