Complex Silence 4

For Complex Silence 4, mysterybear (Dave Seidel) provides a decidedly abstract, yet sublime exploration of the Golden Ratio with two long-form tracks. He describes the creative process: "Both tracks use intervals and waveforms derived from the Golden Ratio. I usually compose in just intonation, which is based on rational numbers (whole number ratios). The golden ratio, by contrast, is an irrational number. Intervals based on irrational numbers are more complex and less consonant than pure (or just) intervals, and tend (to my ear) to have a darker quality which seemed to me to be suitable for the Complex Silence project. Both pieces were written using blue and Csound. "Meridian Transit" is simultaneously restless and static. The title refers to noon (i.e., when the sun crosses the meridian), though it also reminds me somehow of 3:00 in the afternoon. Either way, for me it reflects the hot, sunny, humid weather that has dominated northeastern US during the summer of 2009. It uses a five-note scale and a seven-note scale that have no notes in common, and explores some of the different interval combinations that result as the tones slowly shift through a series of four-note chords. "Solar Midnight" is the scientific name for midnight, the opposite of noon, though for me it really covers the period from about 10:00pm through 1:00am. This piece is more somber than its companion piece and uses longer tones. It is structured as a mensuration canon, where the different voices (three, in this case) play the same sequence at different time scales. There are two cycles: first all three voices are in the same register; then the voices are at different transpositions. It uses a six-note non-octave scale." Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States Series concept by Phillip Wilkerson. Special Thanks to Jon 7.