November 1, 2022
The randomization method this time involves a tracery grammar I made to generate "musical directives."
All songs on this album were written in Musescore and rendered using this Roland Sound Canvas soundfont.
Directives:
Use D melodic minor.
Use woodwinds in the bass.
Use septuplets.
Use a 7 against 2 polymeter.
I think I'm in love with the synth brass in this soundfont. Not super in love with the ending section. I couldn't figure out how else to incorporate the 7 against 2 polymeter, and I got sick of the bassoon.
I do like the wonky rhythmic feel the septuplets give to the first section. Seems like the elevator and/or escalator is a little broken.
Directives:
Use keyboards.
Use agogo, ride, and bongos in 5/4.
Make a groove with triangle, bongos, and cowbell.
Use Gbaug in E major.
MuseScore doesn't actually have an agogo instrument. Thankfully there's a workaround. I consolidated the percussion instructions because they both had bongos in common. It just makes sense.
Directives:
Use guitars.
Use septuplets.
Use a 13 against 13 polyrhythm.
Use G altered.
I'm going to interpret a 13 against 13 polyrhythm as just writing a section in 13/8. I felt like septuplets in 13/8 would be super crunchy, so I decided to alternate between 13/8 and 7/8 instead.
Directives:
Use cowbell, ride, and snare.
Move from Cdim7 to Amaj7.
Use guitars in the soprano range.
Use guiro, triangle, and hi-hat in 9/8.
Once again I'm consolidating the drum instructions.
Directives:
Use strings.
Use a 13 against 11 polymeter.
Use ride, guiro, and bongos in 12/8.
Use a 5 against 5 polyrhythm.
One of the issues with using Tracery for this is that I keep getting X against X polyrythms. Once again I'm interpreting this as "use 5/4 for a section".
I normally don't like MIDI strings, but these actually sound really good. It was probably a mistake to let the grammar give me such wonky polymeters to write, though. I don't think that's something in my skillset.