Septangle

 

It's about time, or the time we had, or what remains...

 

The lyrics include several phrases from sundials: "Begone about thy business", "Others tell of storms and showers, I tell of sunny hours", "It's later than you think", "Life is but a shadow: the shadow of a bird on the wing"... 

Ben Hjertmann: Vocals, Ktele 2.3.7.11-Limit Guitar, 12EDO Ukelele (3-Limit Frets, 7-Limit Tuning)
Emmalee Hunnicutt: Fretless Bass
Graham Thomason: Rhodes Electric Piano (2.3.7-Limit Tuning)
Jonathan Snead: 2.3.7.11-Limit Viola da Gamba
Zack Kampf: Drums
RJ Wuagneux: Guitar Solo (Ktele 2.3.7.11-Limit)

Meter: [7/8] (with 7/4 & 4/4)
60Hz = 7th Harmonic

Scale: 1/1, 49/48, 9/8, 7/6, 21/16, 4/3, 49/36, 3/2, 14/9, 27/16, 12/7, 63/32

Notice the references to the pivotal commas in the lyrics:
"It could be 63 outside and summertime" (64/63)
"Will we be 63 in good time?" (64/63)
"Now his seventh son is turning 49" (49/48)
"Three cubes in the bitter punch" 3^3 (28/27)


Shadow Key

 

This song engages with the question of tuning and perception, and with the prescribed roles of discipleship, astrology, and crayons. What if there were only 12 kinds of people, 12 colors, 12 notes?

Ben Hjertmann: Vocals, Jackson 7-String 11-Limit Guitar, Melodica, 12EDO Tele guitar (Shadow Key of C Major)
Emmalee Hunnicutt: Vocals, Fretless Bass
Graham Thomason: Synth
Jonathan Snead: 2.3.7.11-Limit Viola da Gamba
Will Beasley: Drums
Daniel Richardson: Soprano Sax

Meter: [11/4 and 11/16] (with 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10/16 truncated to 11/4)
60Hz = 11th Harmonic & 12/11

Scale: 1/1, (33/32, not used), 12/11, 11/10, 11/9, 14/11, 11/8, *16/11*, 11/7, 18/11, 20/11,

 

*11/6**The two modes of the scale that are used emphasize these tonics.This is (6,7,8,9,10,11)/11 & 11/(6,7,8,9,10,11) with 11/11 as 60Hz, a cross-shaped structure from a Partch Tonality Diamond, if you like.  The melody pitches occur at exactly the corresponding rhythm division (both Utonal). For example, the 11/9 and 18/11 both occur at 9/16 rhythmic intervals. The 14/11 and 11/7 both occur at 7/16 rhythmic intervals, all truncated at each 11/4 bar.

The secret and serendipitous "shadow key" arose from the two xenharmonic JI modes of the scale below. It just so happened that harmonics 6-8-9 of 16/11 and X/6-8-9 from 12/11 are within about 3 cents of 12EDO, when 1/1 (11/11) is 60Hz.

In other words, this song two microtonal modes held within them an almost indistinguishable "shadow key" of C Major (in A440). This happened *by accident*, so of course, the song needed to end there as if awaking from this microtonal soundscape into normal C Major ..."It was a all a dream..."

 

The lyrics and two vocal parts overlap in a hocket such that each time we hear the same syllables they are the same pitches, but are recontextualized as parts of other words. The pitches as well are heard in both the microtonal and shadow key (C Major) contexts. Notice how their meaning is changed when combined and overlayed.

Hierophony

 

A 5-Limit JI acoustic song, not so different from everything we know.  And yet it's hard to say for certain.  

The lyrics pay homage to the poetic styles of Chris Weisman and Diane Cluck.  

The Hierophant, the Hieroglyph, hierophany, and the Hero/Phony.  The sacred sound, hierophony.  During the holy quest, the writer is seduced back into the activity of screen-sharing and ghost-posting.

Or it's about the first acoustic guitar you ever owned, the one that's on all those tapes you can't find, the one they said couldn't be fixed at the music store, but you kept just in case.  And it was reborn into "The Keys to the Five"

Or else it's about things old and new, how you know if you're "old", according to the phone, and the planned obsolescence of devices.

Ben Hjertmann: Vocals, Washburn 5-Limit Guitar
Emmalee Hunnicutt: Cello
Graham Thomason: Padre 5-Limit Reed Organ, Vocals
Jonathan Snead: 5-Limit Autoharp, Vocals
Will Beasley: Drums

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Meter: [15/8] (5/8*3 & 3/8*5)

60Hz = 3rd Harmonic

Scale: 1/1, 25/24, 9/8, 75/64, 5/4, 4/3, 45/32, 3/2, 25/16, 5/3, 27/16, 15/8

 

The 5-Limit reveals in nature some favorite harmonies and progressions:  

Chromatic Mediant progressions: I --> III & VI  with common tones of 5th harmonic

The augmented V chord with natural 5 as an added melody pitch.

Shovel

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Shovel features a 3-string slide guitar built out of a shovel.

The lyrics are about the names we inherit, the family history, the ancestors, the land, and the gunpowder and oil we draw from it.  Like all the lyrics on this album, they are also about many other things.

60Hz = 1st Harmonic (Fundamental)

Ben Hjertmann: Vocals, Slide Shovel Guitar
Emmalee Hunnicutt: Fretless Bass, Vocals
Graham Thomason: Synth, Vocals
Jonathan Snead: Bifur (Stereo Electric Hammered Dulcitar), Vocals
Will Beasley: Drums

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Meter: [5/8]
60Hz = 1st Harmonic

Scale: 1/1, 11/10, 9/8, 6/5, 5/4, 11/8, 7/5, 3/2, 8/5, 7/4, 9/5, 15/8
[(8–9–10–11–12–14–15) /1 & /5]

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Notice the half-flat-II (11/10) chord on descending approach to I.

Aurora

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This sci-fi prog song evokes imagery of binary stars, split/merged personalities, colors that are too themselves, and the aurora too real.  The lyrics are a complex hocket/puzzle in which the same syllables and pitches return in the same places, yet recontextualized and expanded/contracted to form different meanings, paired with the 7 and 9 layers of rhythm (see below).

Ben Hjertmann: Vocals, Ktele 2.3.7.11-Limit Guitar, Drums
Emmalee Hunnicutt: Vocals, Fretless Bass
Graham Thomason: 2.3.7.11-Limit Orcoa Reed Organ
Jonathan Snead: 2.3.7.11-Limit Viola da Gamba
Dave Bullard: Drums
Hinton Edgerton: Theremin
 

Meters: 9/8-vs-7/8 [63/8]

60Hz = 3rd Harmonic

Scale: 1/1, 33/32, 9/8, 7/6, 77/64, 11/9, 21/16, 11/8, 3/2, 14/9, 7/4, 11/6

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Notice the neutral 3rd root progression from 1/1 to 11/9 in the verses.  This unusual xenharmonic interval flies in the face of equal-tempered harmony, and yet, it sounds remarkably like a familiar heavy rock progression.

Compare this to the 9:7 root progression in "Sun's settling too deep..." and the 11:7 root progression in the Chorus "Aurora made too real"

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The chorus features the 77/64 pitch as the 7th harmonic of a chord built on the 11th harmonic and as the 11th harmonic of a chord built on the 7th harmonic.  

The remainder of the pitches in this section for a unique mode based on the 7th harmonic (1/1 = 7/4): 1/1, 8/7, 33/28, 11/8, 3/2, 11/7.

A kind of Lydian-Aeolian with no 7th scale degree...

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The 9:7 polyrhythm is seen from both sides and parallels the root progression from the "Sun's settling too deep..." section.

Paramonde

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Does the dream continue once we are awake?  Where do the characters go once we leave them?  Can we lend them our names for an hour to live in our world?  Children playing in the churchyard, or as they remember themselves in the postcards and polaroids.  When we reawaken our personalities each day, and try to live out who we said we were, we are at the same time in the dreams of others acting wholly unlike those selves.  Or as we dream and scheme who we want to be, we try to enact the plan from the coffeeshop napkin.  We try to hold on to the name of the island we read on the sign in the dream.  If we can only do that, we'll have the bridge between self and dream-self. 
Or can we at least be the stream that forks and combines again?

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Meter: [14:11/4]
Ben Hjertmann: Vocals, Doorian 11-Limit Guitar, Piano (2.3.7.11-Limit Tuning), Electronics
Jonathan Snead: 12-string Acoustic 2.3.7.11-Limit (Ktele-Fretted) Guitar
Graham Thomason: Piano (2.3.7.11-Limit Tuning)
Emmalee Hunnicutt: Fretless Bass, Cello
Will Beasley: Drums
Jonathon Sale: Tabla

Meter: [14:11/4 and 11/4]
60Hz = 12/11 (but also at times 1st Harmonic & 144/77)

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This song features a 14:11 polyrhythm, 14-tuplets equally-spaced in a measure of 11/4.  This interval of 14/11 is the tuning of the major 3rd heard in the main made of the scale described below.

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Scale: 1/1, 12/11, 9/8, 7/6, 14/11, 21/16, 16/11, 3/2, 18/11, 56/33, 7/4, 21/11

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The beautiful 14/11 major third is higher than an equal-tempered major third.  Compare this to the 5:4 major third heard in Hierophony, A View from the Trees and Shovel which is lower than an equal-tempered major third.

The 12 pitches of this tuning contain three pitches of each of the following (3-reduced) types: "1's", "7's", "11's", and "77's."  The song uses the sixth note scales/chords that combine two of these types.  

 

For example, the song begins and ends in the scale that combines the 7's and 11's..."7's and 11's Scale" with 11 as tonic (A): 1/1, 9/8, 14/11, 3/2, 56/33, 21/11.  This creates a major mode that is missing the 4th scale degree. Sometimes 16/11 is added as a very sharp 4th scale degree.  Each of these hexatonic scales contains three pitches in common with the others, but the relationships between them are different.  The effect is that each mode/chord feels stable and logical, but through common-tone modulation, the song traverses microtonal key relationships smoothly, whose obscurity may go unnoticed, by design.

Beal-Four Island Industrial Park Museum

 

Beal-Four Island was an island from a dream, remembered with its exact spelling.  The dream contained detailed maps and history, including an entire museum dedicated to the island's former industrial park.  

The dream was so clear, the details so refined, it is hard to believe this place never existed.  

But it does now.

Ben Hjertmann: Fretless Bass, Drums, Rogue *48EDSL Guitar, FLASH & Vocal-Synths
Jonathan Snead: Synth
Graham Thomason: Synth
RJ Wuagneux: Rogue *48EDSL Guitar
Lane Claffe: 12EDO Guitar (3-Limit frets) in 13-Limit tuning
Hinton Edgerton: Theremin

Meters: [39/16, 13/12, 16/12, 12/4]

60Hz = 13th Harmonic (*27) and also 27th Harmonic

Scale (from D Half-Flat): 1/1, 27/26, 9/8, 243/208, 16/13, 4/3, 18/13, 3/2, 81/52, 27/16, 16/9, 24/13

Primary Mode (from D Half-Flat): 1/1, 9/8, 16/13, 18/13, 3/2, 27/16, 24/13

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Notice how the neutral 3rd interval of 16/13 puts this primary mode in between Lydian and Dorian, since Do-Re-Sol-La are all 3-Limit and the 3rd, 4th, and 7th scale degrees are in between equal-tempered major and minor intervals from the tonic.  However, they lean about 9% closer to Lydian.

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In the opinion of the composer, it is suprisingly major/Lydian-sounding rather than neutral, even though it's so close to halway in between.

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*48EDSL = 48 Equal Divisions of the Scale Length.  It would have 48 equally-sized frets if they continued the entire scale length.  This creates a 48-Utonal Scale.  In other words, a subharmonic series from harmonics 1-48.  48/1, 48/2, 48/3, 48/4...48/48.  In this song, only the 2.3.13.-Limit frets are used: 1/1 (open), 16/13 (48/39), 4/3 (48/36), 3/2 (48/32), 24/13 (48/26), 2/1 (48/24), 8/3 (48/18), and 3/1 (48/16).

A View from the Trees

Written for our sixth band member, Felix Heron, in his room a few weeks before he was born.  But it was also begun in a treehouse in Tennessee a year before.  And it was begun even before.  We just noticed what's already here.

Ben Hjertmann: Vocals, 2.3.5-Limit Washburn Guitar, Organ Sampler
Emmalee Hunnicutt: Cello
Jonathan Snead: Doorian 11-Limit Guitar (with slide)
Graham Thomason: Flute & Organ Samplers
Will Beasley: Drums
Additional Sounds: Wood Thrush, Felix, and Creek

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Meter: [60/16] (5/8*3, 15/16*4, 3/4*5)

60Hz = 5th Harmonic

Scale: 1/1, 25/24, 9/8, 75/64, 5/4, 4/3, 45/32, 3/2, 25/16, 8/5, 27/16, 15/8

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Note the modulation up a 5/4 (major third) in the Bridge and 2nd Chorus, returning home at the end.

~~~

All Music and Lyrics composed by Ben Hjertmann, 2021-2025, copyright Ben Hjertmann (KLWHNAA Publishing, ASCAP) all rights reserved.

Additional parts improvised by Emmalee Hunnicutt, Graham Thomason, Jonathan Snead, RJ Wuagneux, Hinton Edgerton, Lane Claffe, and Dave Bullard.

Recording, Production, Electronics, Mixing, and Mastering by Ben Hjertmann, Earhead Studios, Mars Hill, NC, except Paramonde Tabla recorded by Jonathon Sale and Shadow Key saxophone recorded by Daniel Richardson.

Art by Jonathan Snead and Ben Hjertmann, Photo of Spiral Garden by Ben Hjertmann, Bubble by Felix Hjertmann.