July Mountain
for field recordings and percussion
Michael Pisaro
for Greg Stuart and Jez riley French
July Mountain
We live in a constellation
Of patches and of pitches,
Not in a single world,
In things said well in music,
On the piano and in speech,
As in the page of poetry—
Thinkers without final thoughts
In an always incipient cosmos.
The way, when we climb a mountain,
Vermont throws itself together.
—Wallace Stevens
July Mountain is a 20-minute crossfade from a collection of 20 mono field recordings (arranged in rotating
groups of 10 simultaneous recordings) to 10 sets of recorded percussion parts, with a 1-minute fade out at
the end. (Total duration is 21 minutes.)
Field Recordings: The 20 recordings may be made by the performer(s) or obtained from the composer.
They should all be made in mountain areas or valleys if possible. See the attached chart for the
arrangement of the recordings in time, panning, and information about the fades. The mix of the 10
simultaneous recordings will be more rich in event or denser than a stereo recording, but the overlapping of
the recordings should nonetheless feel natural. This can be achieved by a careful balancing of the individual
tracks.
Percussion: There are 10 layers of (recorded) percussion sounds following the descriptions given below
and using the attached chart to align them in time. (Various possibilities exist for the live performance of
some of the parts, combined with parts that have been recorded.) The fade in here is created by the
accumulation of sounds.
1.) Drum Wind: 18 different but related sounds, beginning at 2:00 and with a period of 60 seconds.
Each of the sounds is a sustained (light) friction noise made on a drum of some kind. The drums
may vary in size and resonance. The kind of excitation may also vary from using a brush or a
towel, to leaves, pillows, wooden dowels, etc. Make sure at least one third of the sounds have a
deep resonance (i.e., where the cavity of the chamber can be heard) and one third have a shallow
resonance (more of just a surface). Each sound begins with a small fade (i.e., not at full volume).
The last minute (from 20:00 to 21:00) is a long fade in the last three drums.
2.) Projected Sine Tones: 8 sine tones of the given frequencies and durations projected into (onto)
resonant surfaces (and recorded); beginning at 3:30 and with a period of 2 minutes. In each case,
after a short fade in, the tone stays at the selected volume for the first quarter of its duration and
then begins a long fade out (3/4 of its duration). The surface should have a certain lightly “grainy”
characteristic (i.e., so that these will not be heard as pure tones). This may be a feature of the
instrument itself (i.e., a sine tone projected onto a snare drum) or may be helped along (by placing
some grains of rice or beans on the surface of the drum or cymbal). The character (i.e., timbre,
loudness, distance, etc.) of the tone should change subtly over its duration (perhaps by moving the
speaker playing the tone along the surface of the instrument).
3.) Bowed Wood Blocks: 10 different bowed wood block sounds (relatively mid- to low-register
sounds), beginning at 5:00 with a period of 90 seconds. Each sound begins at the start of the unit,
lasts 45 seconds (and is followed by a pause of 45 seconds). One a sound has started, it continues
playing every 90 seconds: thus the number of simultaneous blocks increases from 1 to 10.
4.) Bowed Snare Drum: 17 different sustained sounds obtained by bowing a snare drum, beginning
at 6:30 and with a period of 45 seconds (each new sound is added at these times). Sounds start at
the given times and are then repeated until the end (all sounds fade from 20:00 to 21:00), so the
band of sound “widens.” Sounds may be created by bowing on any part of the instrument and by
bowing on a drumstick or doweling with its tip pressed against the drum. A range of sounds,
starting from bands of noise and then, as each sound gets added, tending more to focus on a
specific pitch or frequencies (or group of frequencies) as it approaches the last sound.
5.) On the Piano: a series of 32 piano chords, beginning at 8:00 and occurring every 22.5 seconds
(see attached part). Each of the four given parts should be recorded separately, and then each
channel panned: 1 far right, 2, far left, 3, center, 4, moving from left to right (and possibly a bit
louder than the others). All sounds are allowed to ring out (i.e., l.v.).
6.) Bass Drum Rice: 24 pulses of a bass drum, with rice or seeds on the surface, beginning at 9:30
and occurring every 25 seconds. Essentially what is desired is a regular pulse, lasting about 10
seconds on a deep, resonant surface, with something of a focus on a bass G (ca. 49 hertz). Tuning
and tapping a bass drum (or a timpani); or exciting the drum with a pulse of a sine tone; or
another method might be found. Once the method is selected, this procedure should be recorded
24 times (perhaps slightly differently each time).
7.) Tin Foil Vibraphone: 8 long tones (of the durations given), beginning at 11:00 and starting every
50 seconds. Bowed vibraphone sounds with tin foil wrapped around the bars of the pitches
indicated (creating a light “buzz” added to the pitch). This sound will fade out gradually from
20:00 to 21:00.
8.) Slow Timpani Glissando: 6 sounds of various durations starting at 12:30. Each sound is a
glissando on a timpani tuned either to a bass G (at 49 hertz) or one at 98 hertz. For each sound,
the instrument is lightly struck (once) and then very slowly moved in the direction indicated (up or
down in pitch). Once the sound is on its way the player can decide if he wants to keep going in this
direction or to move back in other direction (possibly changing direction slowly and subtly two or
three times over the duration of the pitch). The starting position given indicates a pitch either
below (up to 50 cents), above (up to 50 cents) or on the G chosen as the point of reference. These
sounds should be as long as possible, without striking the drum too hard (up to 80 seconds).
9.) Seed Rain: 7 very high sounds, starting at 14:00, with each new sound added every 40 seconds.
Each sound (and they are different in noise character and/or pitch height) is basically a steady
stream of seeds (or rice or beans) falling on a high-pitched bar (glockenspiel) or disc (crotales). The
stream for each of the sounds may be assembled from multiple takes (in order to get the sense of a
dense, sustained feeling).
10.) Bells and Beating Tones: 13 very high bell sounds, starting at 15:30 and occurring every 20
seconds. Four high bells are found (they should all be in the same approximate range) and
identified by number (1 – 4). The chart shows which bells should be played at which time (each
should be recorded separately). Each bell is allowed to ring (i.e., the resonance of the bells will
likely overlap). Once the approximate frequency ranges of the bells have been analyzed, pairs of
(beating) sine tones will be mixed into the resonance of the bell combinations).
July/August 2009
july mountain: percussion chart (instruments and timings)
part start period event number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
1 drum wind (18 sounds) 2:00 1' start 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 #############
duration 5'00 1'00 2'00 6'00 7'00 8'00 3'00 1'00 6'00 4'00 6'00 7'00 4'00 4'00 4'00 4'00 3'00 2'00
end 7:00 4:00 6:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 11:00 10:00 16:00 15:00 18:00 20:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:00 21:00
2 projected sine tones (8 tones) 3:30 2' start 3:30 5:30 7:30 9:30 11:30 13:30 15:30 17:30
frequency 98 49 220.5 588 3136 784 392 1470
duration 4'30 7'30 3'30 5'30 3'30 5'30 4'30 3'30
begin fade out 4:37.5 7:22.5 8:22.5 10:52.5 12:22.5 14:52.5 16:37.5 18:22.5
end 8:00 13:00 11:00 15:00 15:00 19:00 21:00 21:00
3 bowed wood blocks (10 sounds) 5:00 90" 5:00 6:30 8:00 9:30 11:00 12:30 14:00 15:30 17:00 18:30
no. of blocks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 snare drum bowed (17 sounds) 6:30 45" 6:30 7:15 8:00 8:45 9:30 10:15 11:00 11:45 12:30 13:15 14:00 14:45 15:30 16:15 17:00 17:45 18:15
5 on the piano (32 chords) 8:00 22.5" see piano part for timings and chords
6 bass drum rice (24 sounds) 9:30 25" 9:30 9:55 10:20 10:45 11:10 11:35 12:00 12:25 12:50 13:15 13:40 14:05 14:30 14:55 15:20 15:45 16:10 16:35
(event) 19 20 21 22 23 24
17:00 17:25 17:50 18:15 18:40 19:15
7 vibraphone with foil (9 long tones) 11:00 50" start 11:00 11:50 12:40 13:30 14:20 15:10 16:00 16:50 17:40
pitch g4 g3 g#4 g5 a5 g3 d5 g5 d6
duration 1'30 2'20 2'20 3'10 2'20 5'50 2'20 3'10 3'20
end 12:30 14:10 15:00 16:40 16:40 21:00 18:20 20:00 21:00
8 slow tipani glissando (6 sounds) 12:30 80" 12:30 13:50 15:10 16:30 17:50 19:10
starting position above below on above on below
starting direction up up down down up down
9 seed rain (6 sounds) 14:00 40" 14:00 14:40 15:20 16:00 16:40 17:20 18:00
1 0 bells + beating sine tones (13 sounds) 15:30 20" 15:30 15:50 16:10 16:30 16:50 17:10 17:30 17:50 18:10 18:30 18:50 19:10 19:30
bell numbers 1 1 3 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 1 1
2 2 2 4 2 2 3 3
4 3 3 3 4
4 4
July Mountain
(piano parts)
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2
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23
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16:15 16:37.5 17:00 17:22.5 17:45 18:07.5 18:30 18:52.5 19:15 19:37.5
July Mountain (field recording chart)
(number of recording)
time (minutes) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Each field recording is 10 minutes long. Numbers 12 to 20 are broken into two segments.
Field recordings nos. 1 to 11: short fade in and long fade out (so that the individual recording is nearly inaudible in its last 2 minutes).
Field recordings nos. 12 to 20 : short fade in both times; fade out the first half is about 1 minute, and in the 2nd, about 4 minutes. The last two minutes are nearly inaudible.
Panning: each recording is place in a distinct place in the left–right spectrum.
