modular, synth ikjoyce
80th Phase (Disquiet0249)

This week's Junto was to write a piece to celebrate Steve Reich's 80th birthday, using phased loops. I decided to do this using my modular, having two identical sequences running at very slightly different speeds. My initial plan had been to try and get the two voices to suddenly create the happy birthday tune when they were overlapping at a certain point, but I could not get a celebratory sound - it kept sounding dirge like, so I just used notes from Happy Birthday and a few extras to make the sequences feel happy. I voiced them to sound like xylophones, in keeping with some of Reich's favoured instrumentation. There were some modulations in place to adjust the voices as they play, such that one voice may be heard over the other differently as the piece progresses. I manually stopped it when the two sequences were back in synch.
More on this 249th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Wish the minimalist composer Steve Reich a happy birthday” — at:

disquiet.com/0249/1

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

disquiet.com/junto

Subscribe to project announcements here:

tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

llllllll.co/t/happy-birthday-steve-reich-disquiet-junto-project-0249/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Rain image by Rory MacLeod, used thanks to a Creative Commons license:

flic.kr/p/bVJFJb

creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0