All music and noises © Copyright Paul A. Williams aka Elwood Herring - Please read these notes before downloading
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Electronic Symphony no.1 "Son of Man" Opus: 12 Length: 66 minutes Instruments: Korg micro-preset synthesiser, farfisa organ, tape effects Composed: 1980 |
| A synth excursion based on Robert Silverberg's book. There are seven areas which the Hero has to traverse. The music is appropriate for each area, and ranges from fairly melodic (Ice & Fire) to extremely dense (Old & Heavy) to solo instrument (Empty & Dark). Challenging stuff - as is the book. The sound quality is not as good as I would like, but it was originally recorded on cassette tape in 1980. There are two or three versions of almost all of the "movements" if you include the MIDI versions below, so if you like you can play mix & match to get the best combination. NEW - The whole symphony in a handy zip file available on MegaUpload. |
| D/L | Mins | Descriptions of individual movements | 1 Old (Original) | 10:05 | Lumpy arrogant primitive sounds with an emergent marching rhythm towards the end. Quite a harsh piece, which it was meant to be from the start. (This track, along with "Ice" and "Heavy" are just too weird to be turned into MIDI files.) |
| 1 Old (new version) | 10:10 | I recently took another look at this piece, and decided to modify it a bit. This version sounds even more "old" to me, so here it is. | |
| 2 Ice | 09:22 | High tinkly sounds using a whole-tone scale (one of my favourites) which gets progressively less hospitable and more threatening. (I'm far from happy with this piece, but I'm not going to tinker with it now.) | |
| 3 Fire | 
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08:45 | Fiery brass fanfares striding raucously about, with accompanying screeching fireworks overhead. This piece along with "Slow" are the most tuneful sections of the whole symphony. The MIDI version is simplified and doesn't really do the "fireworks" justice, but is otherwise note for note identical. |
| 4 Heavy | 12:21 | Music that can't bear its own weight; it is totally formless and chaotic, its only purpose is to keep going at all costs. After ten minutes of painful struggling it runs out of energy and crumples slowly into the dust. | |
| 5 Slow | |
12:22 (MIDI) 15:30 |
A ponderous organ solo which was improvised and recorded entirely in one sitting. Hymnlike and contemplative, this is music that's in no hurry and should be listened to on those terms. The MIDI version was made in 2006 but doesn't quite have the same effect as the original. It is about 3 minutes longer however. |
| 5a Intermezzo (The Fall) |
03:00 | Basically the "Heavy" movement sped up and reversed. There are two versions of this piece, both of which are included in the Zip file above. | |
| 6 Empty / Dark | |
08:30 | A solo instrument contemplates its own navel, coming to the conclusion that it doesn't even know what it's supposed to be. Eventually lies down in the dark and gives up. Maybe not the most exciting music in the world, but when in context with the rest of the piece it makes perfect sense. You hear the various themes from earlier movements explored and rejected one by one before the character tries in vain to keep his spirits up and stay awake in a totally blank landcape. |
| 7 Reunion | |
02:42 (MIDI) 01:50 |
Exactly as described in the book (as closely as I could manage) - you hear the wailing of Wrong mingled with thunder which starts off the general festivities. I quite like the peculiar harmonies when the brass fanfare comes in - made up of whole major chords moving in parallel to produce the odd effect. |
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