Manic | Depressive

duality binary stars past and future sodium chloride night and day aaron and moses steam governor earth and moon gemini enantiomorphs good and evil pair skaters you and i (c) 2005 Bill Grundmann

Notes and thoughts from long ago. I find it amusingly apropos, don't you? Things really don't change, they just seem to be different. an extract from the inaugural Address of Harry S. Truman, January 1949 The supreme need of our time is for men to learn to live together in peace and harmony. The peoples of the earth face the future with grave uncertainty, composed almost equally of great hopes and great fears. In this time of doubt, they look to the United States as never before for good will, strength, and wise leadership. It is fitting, therefore, that we take this occasion to proclaim to the world the essential principles of the faith by which we live, and to declare our aims to all peoples. The American people stand firm in the faith which has inspired this Nation from the beginning. We believe that all men have a right to equal justice under law and equal opportunity to share in the common good. (find the entire speech on the web: it's worth a read...)

Some more thoughts from long ago, about Man killing the last Whale. I recently travelled back to the same place where I first contemplated this thought, and it seemed even more real now than it did before. Although the method may have changed... ~~~ notes ~~~ I recorded/sequenced this sometime in 1995 entirely on a Roland XP-50. Here, I simply recorded the XP-50 playing it, plus a little multiband compression in GB. I figured I better hurry before: 1. the battery in the XP-50 croaks, 2. nothing on the planet can read a diskette anymore, 3. no one knows what a svq file is

Started with TydelWave's lovely cello ingredients... Then found some little bottles of spices in the kitchen... And started cooking. Mixed it up a bit. Visited a few places along the way. When it seemed done, I put it on a plate. And hear it is. TydelWave's original version is here.

This tune is for the 1st Loop It Or Lose It Challenge. Notes about what I did: Two new loops are created by manipulating the original loop. The song opens with the first new loop that is made by chopping up the original loop. The original loop is divided into four pieces. I kept just the second piece and the fourth piece. They are played in the opposite order, three times. Then they are played one more time, but shifted down two half-steps, and I chopped off the last beat. The creation of the second loop manipulation is a little more complicated. During the first verse, I played the original loop delayed by two beats. There are also background chords, more on that in a moment. During the second verse, I again play the original loop delayed by two beats. And at the same time, I also mixed in the original undelayed loop, but shifted down 7 half-steps, followed by 5 half-steps. The "chords" that are formed by this process are also played by other instruments elsewhere: they form the background during verse 1, and verse 3, and they form the basis for the build up to the ending. To give the loop a fuller sound during the build up, I additionally mixed the original loop shifted the same way again, only an octave higher. This gives it a sort of twelve-string guitar feeling.

lyrics:

Break The Loop We've been over this a hundred times And you just don't seem to get it I've been waiting here three hours The kids are tired and hungry I need to be able to count on you I never know when you're gonna be here This just happens over and over and over I just need to be able to count on you You're never home anymore There's always some big emergency You're always leaving early, and you're always working late The kids don't even know you any more Over and over and over (c)2006 by Bill Grundmann

Yesterday I had a dream of snow.

Slowly sweeping bandpass on bass, a few slide guitars, a bell windstorm, and a soccer crowd used as a gong. In this updated version I modified the chord progression in the middle to build it up even a little more. The crowd sounds during the end seemed weak, so I replaced some of that with a further expansion of the chords on strings. Then I brought in more of the entire crowd loop to form the new ending.

A small setback...

This tune is for the 2nd Loop It Or Lose It Challenge. Notes about what I did: I used two basic transforms on the original loop. For Transform 1, the basic idea is to transpose each group of 4 beats so that the bass note remains the same. measure 1 (beats 1-4) leave as is measure 2 (beats 5-8) shift up 2 half-steps measure 3 (beats 9-12) shift up 3 half-steps measure 4 (beats 12-16) shift up 4 half-steps This works great, until measure 4, which sounds just plain awful. (I'll refer to it as "that awful chord" later on.) If you play that one out of context, it's even worse sounding. So I replaced that one with a brand new one. (Artistic license!) For Transform 2, I broke up the original loop into various four beat chunks. I tried mixing and matching a bunch of them. I ended up using these (the shorthand notation will be used in a moment): 3:6 -- means: beats 3 through 6 11:14 -- means: beats 11 through 14 12:15+2 -- means: beats 12 through 15, raised 2 half-steps 13:16 -- means: beats 13 through 16 16:3-4 -- means: beat 16, and wrapping to beats 1 through 3, lowered 4 half-steps And I used some modifications of Transform 1: n12:15 -- means: beats 12 through 15 n12:15-4 -- means: beats 12 through 15, lowered 4 half-steps n12:15-2 -- means: beats 12 through 15, lowered 2 half-steps The overall form of the song is: E ..... foreshadowing Ax2 ..... pamphlet B ..... radio address A ..... pamphlet B ..... radio address C ..... pamphlet D ..... strange interlude Ex8 ..... strings Ex4 ..... radio address F ..... wind down G ..... loop reference A -- is the first two measures of Transform 1. B -- is Transform 1 down 3 half-steps. C -- is made of repetitions of 11:14 D -- is 3:6, 16:3-4, 12:15+2, 13:16 E -- is n12:15, n12:15-4, n12:15-2 F -- ? G -- is made of notes from the original loop, ending with some notes from that awful chord, plus some more notes from the harmonic series of the bass note

lyrics:

Clamshell Alliance -- If your heating system has a filter, clean or replace it every month during the heating season and save 2 to 10 dollars a month. -- Replace just five traditional lights with Energy Star bulbs or fixtures and save 9 dollars a month. -- Turn off unused lights, appliances, TVs, stereos and computers and save 9 dollars a month. Together, we will develop and deploy innovative and advanced reactors and new methods to recycle spent nuclear fuel. This will allow us to produce more energy, while dramatically reducing the amount of nuclear waste and eliminating the nuclear byproducts that unstable regimes or terrorists could use to make weapons. -- Wash laundry in cold water and save 9 dollars a month. -- Clean your dryer filter, exhaust hose and vent regularly and save 3 dollars a month. As we expand our use of nuclear power, we're also pursuing a broader strategy to meet our energy needs. We're investing in technologies like solar and wind power and clean coal to power our homes and businesses. We're also investing in new car technologies like plug-in hybrid cars and in alternative fuels for automobiles like ethanol and biodiesel. -- Always choose Energy Star appliances and electronics to save 11 dollars a month or more. -- Unplug an electric space heater or hot tub and save 41 dollars a month. Transforming our energy supply will demand creativity and determination, and America has these qualities in abundance. Our Nation will continue to lead the world in innovation and technology. And by building a global partnership to spread the benefits of nuclear power, we'll create a safer, cleaner, and more prosperous world for future generations. Thank you for listening. excerpts from: National Grid, Energy Matters pamphlet, Nov/Dec 2006 President George W. Bush, Radio Address, February 18, 2006 This song is all about transformations. "The only technology ready to fill the gap and stop the carbon dioxide loading of the atmosphere is nuclear power." - Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog

despair

lyrics:

despair yeah, i know... sometimes i just worry i worry about the big picture i mean not just me and my life or my family i mean it seems like sometimes we're just heading nowhere there's giant issues that nobody seems to really care about everybody's just focussed on their own issues and here we are plunging into who knows what and it's really, really hard to be optimistic upbeat or, or just anything positive at all it just seems like the world is goin' to hell in a handbasket but that's nothing new i've read that years and years ago that people thought that way apparently, people thought about this a long, long time ago many generations back that we are just goin' down the tube and yet here we are now doin' the same stuff so maybe i shouldn't worry at all yet in the final analysis i am concerned big time it seems like the end is near but... i'm probably wrong (i hope i'm wrong) but... i'm probably wrong still it just feels that way so there it is (c)2006 Bill Grundmann

A dedication...

A song about waiting.

and as she danced she caught my eye lights in circles turn endlessly spin crystalline snowflakes dancing pure silver sky a lifetime to learn this memory's forever mine

idea construction The trigger for this song was something I read while listening to "Music for Airports" by Brian Eno. Robert F Butts wrote an Introduction in "SETH, Dreams and Projections of Consciousness" that clearly revealed his grief over the death of his wife, Jane Roberts. Something about the mix of music and words brought this song into existence. Start to end, it took about two hours to create this. Here is a different version of this song: I Know You're Here.

lyrics:

All Through The Universe nothin much to say readin through all your songs it seems like yesterday when you were here where it all belongs since you went away no more righting wrongs i wish you were here idea construction building reality idea construction creating you and me i hold you in my dreams echoes of your verse and that diamond gleams i wish you were here i've become immersed and it always seems all through the universe i know you're here (c)2006 Bill Grundmann

We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the tabula rasa.

Building anew, for the good of the group.

This is a slightly different version of Peaceful Sunrise by RoxyLee. I added a few new measures in the middle, and extended the ending. Other than that, I tweaked a little timing and added some expression to the strings and few little things like that. Hope you like it!