Updates, Live: James Tenney, Harmonium #1 (1976)

Harmonium # 1
(source: soundcloud)
no copyright infringement intended

It's Tenney, it's (presumably) harmonic, only most of us don't taste too much Musica Nova; so let's read some questions and answers about this Harmonium #1.

what instruments are playing? sometimes looks like strings and woodwinds (asks Martin Gomez); well, seemingly there are both (my opinion); can someone explain why each chord sounds like a bizarrely perfect progression from the last? (another question, this time by Avicenna); he can be right indeed: there is progression and in its perfection it's bizarre ( my opinion, again; okay it sounds bizarre, I mean my opinion).

Very good questions, deserving honest answers: they are all natural harmonics, so they are perfectly in tune with each other (MJ L); he (Tenney) creates chains of overtone series descending by fifths (A, D, G, C), creating a consistent pattern of harmonic motion with particular intervals that exist in similarly pure relations to each other; from there, he moves to F, creating another interval with pitch class identity 5, an ascending fourth; he rounds out these five tonal centers with B and E, creating only one moment in which the interval is a tritone (pitch class set 6) rather than a fourth or fifth (pcs 5); with this, he has a seven note progression (or row) of the pitches of the C major diatonic scale, making the harmonies in accordance with something deeply familiar (Isaac Blumfeld)

And the video starts by explaining the whole thing:

for an ensemble of 12 or more sustaining instruments - woodwinds, brass and / or strings - including at least 6 in the "soprano" range (e.g. fl, ob, cl, soprano sax, tpt, vln), 4 'alto" (alto fl, Eng. hn, cl, alto sax, Fr. hn, vla), and 2 "tenor" (bass cl, bsn, tenor sax, tbn, cello); the score consists of seven sections (indicated by double "bar-lines"), each of which is divided into two to five segments (single "bar-lines"); the notation shows available pitches for each segment, with numbers above notes indicating deviations from the rempered pitch in cents; each performer chooses one after another of the available pitches in the current segment, and plays it as follows: pppppp, where "X" is the dynamic level notated for that pitch; each tone may be from four to twelve seconds long, but its duration should be equally divided between the crescendo and descrescendo portions of the tone; after a pause this process is repeated with the same or any other available pitch in the segment; the transition from one segment to another may be initiated by any player, simply by introducing the newly avaliable pitch for the next segment (a "white" note); these transitions should be timed so that the total duration of each section is somewhere between one to three minutes

Enjoy!