Roll With the Punches (Isorhythmic Composition)

from Tequila Mockingbird by Reuben Walton

/

about

This piece was written and composed for string quartet by Me using Sibelius™ notational software as a project in my Music History I class with Professor Timothy Crain at UMass Lowell in Lowell, MA, United States. I took this class during the Fall 2010 semester. This is in the key of Bb in 3/4 at 64 BPM. For the composition of my isorhythmic line for my isorhythmic string piece for string quartet “Roll With The Punches”, which is this piece, I created a grid with several rows in it. The top row had all 26 letters of the alphabet, and in the row below them I wrote out the 7 letter names for the diatonic scale C-C, repeating C once I got to the letter H. Below that I wrote out the 12 pitch classes from C natural to B natural, repeating C natural once I got to the letter M, the 13th letter of the alphabet. With this framework in place, I spelled out my middle name, Zetterqvist, which is a Swedish name and is orthographically unusual because it has a “Q” and a “V” right next to each other. Unfortunately, that alone did not give me at least 9 different pitch classes to work with, so I added W-A, the first two letters of my last name. The talea of at least 7 different durations was created in the same manner, I wrote out all the different rhythmic note values as another row in the grid with the alphabet on top. “R-E-U-B-E-N” didn’t provide me with at least 7 different rhythmic durations because there’s only 6 letters in it, so I added “L-T-O-N”, the last four letters of my last name and the ones which were not used for the color, to the talea and thus I was finally able to get at least 7 different durational values within my talea. The talea has 11 durations, and the color has 13 notes. The isorhythmic line is placed in the lowest voice, the cello. The color repeats thirteen times and on the fourteenth repetition it begins to repeat itself using the same rhythmic pattern used in the first repetition. All the accidentals and non-chord tones are written with respect to the key of the piece, Bb major. The piece is composed in 3/4, or triple simple meter, at a pace of 64 beats per minute. The title of the piece comes from a popular idiomatic expression, and I used this title because it is very relevant to one’s outlook on life, particularly my own during the last few months. We have to take the good with the bad, the consonance with the dissonance, and in this respect the isorhythmic line itself might serve as an extended metaphor for a pre-decided or predestined life path. “Rolling with the punches” also, on a more concrete level, is pretty much what I have had to do in relation to working musically with this isorhythmic line, because its wide variety of pitch classes made maintaining relative consonance and harmony a difficult task. The track artwork is a blurry photo of my late friend Kaeli Conley, taken with my Mom's old digital camera in the back seat of I think my late friend Amber Scanlan's car in the parking lot at Taft's Playground in Woods Hole, MA 02543, possibly on Wednesday 10/17/2007. The date in the bottom right corner of the picture is a little suspect because I don't know if the camera was actually calibrated to show the correct date. We thought the picture was funny because of how weird and slightly demonic it looked.

credits

from Tequila Mockingbird, released December 30, 2010
Composed by Reuben Walton
Programming by Reuben Walton
Produced by Reuben Walton
Recorded by Reuben Walton
Mixed by Reuben Walton
Edited by Reuben Walton
Track artwork by Reuben Walton

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Reuben Walton image

Reuben Walton Falmouth, Massachusetts

Reuben Walton is a singer/songwriter and music producer based in Falmouth, MA. He is a graduate of Musicians Institute in Hollywood's Independent Artist program and their Electronic Music Production program, as well as UMass Lowell’s Music Business undergraduate program.
In 2019 he put out a self-titled EP working with producer AVLI Music and is now regularly releasing new music. ... more

contact / help

Contact Reuben Walton

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Reuben Walton recommends:

If you like Reuben Walton, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featured guests are the golden-voiced Baby Rose and psyche soulsters Brainstory.
listen now