My Little Grundgestalts

FunkWhale

My latest composition, “Esercizio no. 16” (Exercise no. 16):

Three voices, which I assigned to soundfonts of a Steinway piano, a Otto Rubner double bass from 1958, and percussions.

Video is obtained via https://github.com/Eidonko/Permutation-feed-povray with as input the string “000011112222”.

Resulting Povray file was edited by changing the camera structure as follows:

camera {
   sky <0,0,1>          //Don't change this
   direction <-1,0,0>   //Don't change this  
   right <-4/3,0,0>     //Don't change this
   location  <300+clock*43000,300+clock*clock*43000,300+clock*43000>  //Camera location
   look_at   <-400,0,0>    //Where camera is pointing
   angle 1      //Angle of the view--increase to see more, decrease to see less
 }

The audio is also available on

#funkwhale

and

#peertube

and on mastodon:

Composed on October 18—20, 2020.

Both video and audio are by Eidon and © Eidon (Eidon at tutanota.com). All rights are reserved.

This song is called 金曜日でした, kinyobi deshita. It means “it was a Friday”, which is the literal translation of a phrase from the song I love the most of those written by the Italian band “Matia Bazar”. That song and its counterpoints literally make me crazy :–)

It was a Friday,” Antonella Ruggero sings; “t' was a night of silence and full moon.” It's Matia Bazar's wonderful “Fantasia”!

I called like this for I wanted to celebrate the day I love most, the prelude to the end of the week. The day of gold, as the Japanese say – hence the title. The bass part came to mind on my way home, and I wrote the rest straight away – a kind of desktop improvisation, with no second thoughts. I orchestrated it in simplicity: double bass, then piano; a touch of kalimba and finally a pinch of woodblock. That's all.

I hope you'll enjoy it. Have a great weekend!


On #peertube:

On #funkwhale:

On #mastodon:


And here's my translation of the lyrics of Fantasia:

A room, a house, a city Empty streets and shadows in the darkness. In Berlin, soldiers, tired and ageless, Stand by walls with women near them Premonition – in a little while everything’s going to end In Paris, London and all other cities.

It all happened on a Friday – it was a night of silence and full moon How much tension there was in the city and how much in that room.

On the Seine a solitary barge goes on Champagne in rivers, ammunition and people unaware. In Paris, connivance under unlit lamps Cigarettes and voices for an hour of happiness. Premonition – in a little while everything’s going to end In Paris, London and all other cities.

It all happened on a Friday – it was a night of silence and full moon How much tension there was in the city How much tension there was ...

Hei! Some tolling – of bells now silent Radio London, a message, in the Thames, a wave. Lord and Lady ‘nother whiskey are going to have But those Englishmen in their pubs are no longer standing. Premonition – in a little while everything’s going to end In Paris, London and all other cities.

It all happened on a Friday – it was a night of silence and full moon How much tension there was in the city...


“金曜日でした” was written and orchestrated by Eidon on October 16, 2020. All rights are reserved to the author. © Eidon, Eidon@tutanota.com. All rights reserved.

...Lysardgig is a lysergic, obsessive, psychedelic, minimalist Ostinato. It is based on only two voices, one of which, the bass, is stubbornly repeated. A slow trend, like abandoning oneself, canceling oneself. Written in one go, last night. Yes, a nocturnal piece – a dark blue piece. Lysardgig Yggdrasil.

Here it is on #peertube

as well as on #FunkWhale

On #Bandcamp you may find the song in lossless format and the whole album that I'm writing.

Photo by Josh Sorenson from Pexels


Lysardgig was composed on October 2 2020. © Eidon (Eidon at tutanota.com). All rights reserved.

“The deep mountains of karma” is one of the verses of the Iroha, perhaps the most perfect pangram ever composed: a text that uses each character of an alphabet — in this case, the Japanese syllabary — exactly once. My thanks go to my kind friend Wim who taught me about it.

*”Gently calligraphed in India ink on the two pieces of washi papers. Meiji-Taisho period, early 20th century, Japan. Attached with with acrylic frame. Missing the last phrase of *’e-hi-mo-se-su-n’. Some stains and aging degradation as seen”.*

Also interesting to me is that the Iroha had been initially attributed to Kūkai, the founder of the Shingon Esoteric sect of Buddhism in Japan, whose life and thought I have recently got acquainted to thanks to Massimo Raveri's book Il Pensiero giapponese classico (ISBN 9788806165871).

An absolute must-read: Massimo Raveri's book Il Pensiero giapponese classico.

Wikipedia kindly provides the English translation by Professor Ryuichi Abe:

Although its scent still lingers on the form of a flower has scattered away For whom will the glory of this world remain unchanged? Arriving today at the yonder side of the deep mountains of evanescent existence We shall never allow ourselves to drift away intoxicated, in the world of shallow dreams.

I don't know how it is for you, o Reader, though the above lines evoke in me the verses of “Perhaps One Day” by Eugenio Montale... and that sentence, “the form of a flower”, is it not a magical reference to Umberto Eco's “The Name of the Rose”?


“The deep mountains of karma” is also a Grundgestalt available on

It begins with a piano solo, then enters uduhachi, followed by congas; bass and percussions follow; then baya suwuk, and finally African percussions. The various instrument then exit one by one, as actors in a play, until only the first and the last one remain on stage and conclude the piece. I don't really know why, though rather than a Japanese piéce I'm thinking now of Luigi Pirandello...

Composed on July 26, 2020. ©Eidon (Eidon@tutanota.com). All rights reserved. desrever sgnorw llA