Tag: multiphonics

E1-G2 Multiphonic

20 November, 2021

We’re off into uncharted territory now with a new multiphonic I just found today. This is based on a low E although the fingering would have you think it should come out as an F. After some fiddling, I managed to relax my jaw enough for the multiphonic to emerge. Therefore, I’d say this one is somewhat difficult to achieve.

The active ingredient here is in raising the right-hand second finger, but the low C key plays an important part in splitting the sound. If it’s not speaking, adding the low B key also helps (and gives it an interesting quarter tone shading — take note composers).

Here’s the notation:

And here’s what it sounds like:

I lept off a cliff and tried combining the last two multiphonics and came up with another sound byte. To me, it reminds me of a cross between a Paris ambulance and 90’s era modem connection grind. It was incredibly hard to produce so not something for the faint of heart (to play or to listen to). Still, achieving it produced a better endorphin hit than what used to sustain me for days in facebook. Have a listen.

Eb1-Eb2 Multiphonic

19 November, 2021

The third multiphonic in the randomly selected list is the first I’m to document that is not an artifact of Jeffrey Ryan’s Arbutus.

Happily, this multiphonic is quick to respond and powerful making it a real rip-snorter when played with gusto. Yet it can also be played quite softly if you have a fluency for that sort of thing.

Make note that without the low B key depressed, this merely plays a handsomely in-tune Eb over the break (that’s a post for another time). The combination of the open left hand first finger and the low B key are the active ingredients in making this baby work.

I also mucked about with lowering the first finger left hand to — among other things — sound the low Eb, but also to find all sorts of delightful little micro-multiphonics (you heard it here first) that reside in the twilight world of sounds between everyday notes.

The recording I made is just the straight up in-your-face multiphonic, but I may get around to documenting some of the other nifty sounds possible (if I can figure out how to notate them). Enjoy.

E1-F#2 Multiphonic

18 November, 2021

Continuing from my previous post in the long-awaited documentation of tárogató multiphonics, I’m starting with the two multiphonics employed in Jeffrey Ryan’s Arbutus for tárogató and piano (who incidentally I just discovered was nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award nomination, Classical Composer of the Year 2021).

The second multiphonic is considerably easier to sound (i.e., it’s more stable than its predecessor) even though it is fingered quite closely to the other. The upper note is not a true F sharp but is in fact an F quarter sharp (a flat sharp, as it were). Notation-wise, it’s a sharp that makes you think perhaps your printer has dropped a cog or some crawling insect has met its end on your manuscript.

Once again, the fingering system is the German one although it could work on the French system, I just haven’t tested it. In any case, tárogatós are hardly systematized so it may not matter at all. For all I know I could be the only benefactor of this documentation. Having worked these past twenty years as a technical writer, it wouldn’t be first time writing documentation for an audience of one — or none.

Below is what the multiphonic sounds like, and I’ve also included a link to the recording of Arbutus for tárogató and piano allowing you also to listen to this multiphonic in context with the composition: Listen to Arbutus on YouTube (I’ve cued it up to where the multiphonic is played).

D#1-F#2 Mulitphonic

18 November, 2021

In 2016 when I commissioned composer Jeffrey Ryan to write a contemporary work for tárogató and piano, I discovered the rich world of multiphonics for the tárogató, none of which to my knowledge have ever been documented. This is numero uno in a series of posts to document what I have learned about extended techniques for this instrument.

Below, I have recorded the first multiphonic, one built on the low D# (1) and which coaxes an F# in the second octave (2).

I’ve notated it as follows:

This isn’t a particularly easy multiphonic to start with. It wants to just give a bland-grey nothing sound, so you need to ensure you play with a slack jaw and focus on the low D sharp. Fortunately, Jeffrey scored his Arbutus with the instructions “allow lower note of multiphonic to emerge first” (although I may have had a hand in those instructions).

About the fingering chart: I play a tárogató that uses a German (Albert) fingering system, so if you’re playing on a French (Boehm) system, Dieu vous aide.

Here’s a short recording of what this multiphonic is meant to sound like: