eight trumpets

info

Premiered as "polymath 1" on Episode 85 of Metropolis Ensemble’s "House Music" video series
Sam Wells, composer, trumpeter, audio & video editor

program note

Stories and myths are passed down from generation to generation. With each retelling and reimagining, they shift and mutate, resonating in new ways with the accretion and erosion of interpretation. polymyths imagines collapsing the evolution of these myths and stories into a single moment. How do the different points in time interfere, both constructively and destructively? Are new resonances created or underlying threads revealed?

polymyths investigates this proposition as an ongoing series of works for “auto-ensembles,” solo musicians who layer multiple recordings of themselves, resulting in an ensemble of one person from different points in time. Each polymyth is composed of both improvised layers and predetermined harmonic layers based on one of the 4096 possible combinations of twelve specific overtones of harmonic series based on F#0 [23.20312 Hz]:

This diagram uses The Helmholtz-Ellis JI Pitch Notation devised by Marc Sabat and Wolfgang von Schweinitz to accurately depict Just Intonation tunings. (https://plainsound.org)

polymyth no. 645 is for eight past versions of myself playing trumpet. The four harmonic layers are based on a chord of overtones 13º, 21º, 34º, & 55º. These four overtones were selected for being part of the Fibonacci series, a slow harmonic progression ensues that works patiently down the Fibonacci series to the overtones of 1º, 2º, 3º, & 5º (a justly tuned F# major triad). This composed chorale is recorded, one layer after another, and then the four freely improvised layers are recorded. The resulting work is a recording of eight trumpets played by one person, reacting to themselves across time.

This recording of polymyth no. 645 also includes a translucent video of each part blended together.