I gave these first mixes reverberations through impulse responses. I ended up not using any artificial reverberations at all for the final projects. They would smoothen out detailed processings. Dry sounds got plenty of natural reverberation from the spaces we performed in. It is impossible to experience a dryer acoustics than the room you are currently in.
The recordings were done by Davide Bertolini, with 3 microphones for each musician: A main microphone in front of the musician, a DPA attached to the instrument, and a contact microphone taped at the surface of the instrument. Listening to the results, my choice was normally the DPA, except where bumping sounds were too frequent. The contact microphones heard the fidels well, while the timbres sounded artificial. For the recorder however, tones happen by vibrations in the air, and sounded very distant with a contact microphone. Josteins fingers tapping on the recorder were on the contrary loud and clear. I used these recordings to reveal percussive effects which were not audible in the room. The following mixes involve contact microphone on the recorder with impulse responses applying strange acoustic ambiences, inside a tank or a piece of metal.
Johannes Ciconia's "Le ray au soleil" is a proportion canon. The manuscript contains only one melodic line, with a note that it should be performed in simultaneous speed ratios 1:3:4. 1
During a recording session in Johanneskirken, each instrumentalist of Ensemble Currentes recorded almost every part of the canon with a click track. I had many possibilities of changing the instrumentation in our mix, and even morph between different timbres within the same part.
The first mix follows Ciconias original, 3 parts in speed ratios 1:3:4, with a cathedral impulse response as reverberation.
The Kyrie of György Ligeti's Requiem is a fugue, and each entrance consists of 4 parts performing a chromatic line in 4 different rhythmic versions, using using subdivisions of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. At any time, the 4-part entrances have multiple polyrhythms (ex. 2 5 3, 3 6 5 4, 5 4 3 5, 5 6 7 5, 8 7 6 5, 9 8 7 6, 8 7 8 7). Polyphonic lines are fused into floating masses of sound. Ligeti studied renaisance polyphony, and used this knowledge to create this language of micropolyphony.
I extended Ciconias 3-part canon to 6 parts by adding new proportions. Some sustained drones were added before or after where durations could not add up. This version will step outside medieval counterpoint principles, a canon in the speed ratios 1:3:4:5:7:9. For practical reasons, it has been transposed to G (concert pitch 465 Hz).
