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Transposed Dekany

Program note

Transposed Dekany is a concert work performed by a large consort of musicians each playing a mobile phone using the Satellite Gamelan app. The app synthesises bell sounds and sine waves using some of the first software instruments created by computer music pioneer and composer Jean-Claude Risset Using these sounds performers explore the harmonic properties of a 10-note microtonal scale. The scale, called a dekany, is generated from a set of harmonics using a method devised by contemporary tuning theorist and instrument builder Erv Wilson.

The particular scale used in Transposed Dekany has two distinctive harmonic flavours: one found on the odd notes of the scale, the other on the even notes. Automated on-screen cues alternate between each harmonic group making sounds playable at various times or disabling them at other times. The entire consort of players is subdivided into five instrument families each playing a different harmonic transposition of the scale. Over the course of the work lasting 12' 24”, every combination of the five transposed families is heard. The work is dedicated to both Erv Wilson and Jean-Claude Risset.

Transposed Dekany won Vice-Chancellor's prize in the SpaceTime Concerto Competition on November 30 2012 when it was played by a consort of musicians located in several global venues interconnected via the internet. It has since been played as a single venue work in concerts by gamelan musicians at Bandung International Digital Arts Festival, 2013, choristers from Melbourne's Astra Choir, 2017 and smaller ensembles at EuroMicroFest, Freiburg, 2013, International Conference on Auditory Display, Canberra, 2016, MicroFest Los Angeles and Oz MicroFest, Sydney 2018.

References

2018
G. Schiemer. Transposed Dekany in concert.

2018
G. Schiemer. Satellite Gamelan at LA MicroFest, Resonate Magazine, Australia Music Centre, May 16

2012
G. Schiemer Satellite Gamelan concept video submitted for Space Time Concerto Competition