Jeremy Jarvis - Opus 9: LAUGH ATTACK

Recording – Electronic Music ($10)

Composed using pen & paper, drumsticks and the computer programs Peak, Metasynth, Digital Performer and Finale, in the Spring of 2004.

Two different patterns fit the 12/8 time signature – a drum pattern three measures long, and a digital-audio pattern of one measure, which is a recording of the composer laughing metrically. The number of regular measures in the piece is determined by a formula: 2(1 + 2 + 3 ... + 12) = 156. The recording has been manipulated electronically 156/2 times; two copies of each of its 78 files are placed consecutively into a sequencing program in backwards order from the one most-altered to the one least-altered. The drum part features an offsetting pattern based on the same mathematical formula; in order for its culmination to match that of the digital-audio part, it must begin 78 eighth notes before the computer part. After 2(12) bars, a single measure of the 1/8 time signature is inserted into just the drum part, which permits one extra single stroke. Thus, the drum is offset by one eighth note, and realigns with the audio part to form a new collective pattern. Then, 2(11) bars later, a measure of 2/8 is inserted – two extra single strokes. This pattern is continued until the number of 12/8 measures in-between odd measures is minimized to 2(1), while the number of single-stroke eighth notes in the final odd measure is maximized at 12/8. To help the drummer keep time, an extra digital-audio part derived from the original recording begins one measure before the drum, acting as a uniform metronome by literally laughing on the beat all the way through – pausing for each inserted odd measure.