leescottnewcombe

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The Divine Monochord is a work which features a kaleidoscope of tonal infusions in seemingly endless combinations of sonic interactions and spatial realisations.

 

Eight speakers are arranged in a straight line resembling the string of a monochord. An audience can freely move around and in between these speakers as they burst into life with waves of microtonal harmonies. Periods of silence are abruptly interrupted with outbursts of audible frenzy, at stages becoming a seething sonic mass in perpetual swirling spatialisation.

 

All pitches encountered throughout The Divine Monochord are sourced from the diapason and the anemoi paired in unison.

 

The work takes its initial inspiration from the hermetic philosopher Robert Fludd and his figure of ‘The Divine Monochord’ from the Tomus Primus De Macrocosmi Historia (1617). Fludd took a “Pythagorean monochord comprising of two octaves [and] divided [it] into all the basic harmonic intervals, each of which describes an element of the universe. The scheme begins with low G, which is the earth” (James, 2006. The Music of the Spheres, p.129). He then precedes through the elements, moon and the two innermost planets to arrive at the sun which functions as the octave of Earth, middle G, continuing through the known outer planets during the seventeenth century, past God, and into the heavenly regions ending at “gg for the highest division of the empyrean” (Godwin, 2005. Robert Fludd: Hermetic Philosopher and Surveyor of Two Worlds, p.45). This totals to the three realms of elements, celestial bodies, and the heavenly.

 

The Divine Monochord’s reference point focuses solely on the planets in this system. Six planets were known to Fludd, and to these he assigned the following note names: Mercury E / Venus F / Earth G / Mars A / Jupiter B / Saturn C. Uranus and Neptune were discovered in 1781 and 1846 respectively. Accordingly, Uranus is assigned D, and Neptune an octave doubling of E. These pitches are used as the initial scoring appearance for each planet to enter their individual tonal revolutions. 

 

The Divine Monochord takes its premise from the following scenario: the beholder is situated at the north pole of the Sun with an observable aperture of approximately 45º (or 1/8th) in which to witness each planet as it passes along its orbital pathway. When a planet is located within the observable aperture it is audible, and when a planet is located outside of the observable aperture it remains silent. 

 

All eight tonal revolutions transition in chromatic steps throughout the 53-tone hyperchromatic scale. They follow a descending or ascending chromatic pathway depending on the direction of the assigned planet’s rotation on its axis. All planets in our solar system orbit the Sun in the direction of the Sun’s rotation, which is counterclockwise if observed from the Sun’s north pole, but only six of the planets rotate on their axis in the same direction. These planets follow descending chromatic pathways, pairing with Mercury; Earth; Mars; Jupiter; Saturn; and Neptune. The two remaining planets, Venus, and Uranus, have a retrograde rotation in a clockwise direction which correspondingly have an ascending chromatic pathway. 

 

The pathways are now subjected to dyadic pairings depending on their associated planet’s mass; the dyadic pairings distance in chromatic steps becoming wider as mass increases. Mercury has the smallest mass and is the only pathway to feature a single pitch sequence. Next is Mars which sounds a -1 descending chromatic dyad, followed by Venus sounding a +2 ascending chromatic dyad. Earth sounds a -3 descending chromatic dyad, with Uranus following with a +4 ascending chromatic dyad. The three planets with the largest masses are all descending chromatic dyads, in order of Neptune (-5); Saturn (-6); and Jupiter (-7). 

 

Pitch duration is calculated with a similar system to that of the dyadic pairings. The duration of sustain is increased by one beat the further the distance a planet resides from the Sun. Commencing with Mercury, which is assigned one beat per dyad, continuing sequentially out to the most distant planet, Neptune, which is assigned eight beats per dyad. 

 

The following pitches in each pathway have their attack points occur halfway through the duration of the previous pitch. For instance, Mercury’s following attack point would appear 0.5 beats after the previous, Venus’ 1 beat after, Earth’s 1.5 beats, and so on, until you reach Neptune’s distance of 4 beats between attack points. 

 

The Divine Monochord has a tempo of 60 bpm to align itself with clock time measurements. The scaled down duration calculates one year to be equivalent to 3 minutes 20 seconds.

 

The two innermost planets to the Sun have their orbital revolution rounded off to two decimal places. Mercury’s precise orbital period is 0.2408467 of an Earth year, which becomes 0.24 (48 secs). Venus’ precise orbital period is 0.61519726 of a year. Rounded up this becomes 0.62 (2 mins 4 secs). Earth’s true orbital period is 1.0000174, which simply becomes 1 (3 mins 20 secs).

 

The remaining five planets have their orbital revolutions rounded to one decimal place. In order of their distance from the Sun; 

Mars has a precise orbital period of 1.8808158, rounded to 1.9 (6 mins 20 secs). Jupiter has an orbital period of 11.862615, rounded to 11.9 (39 mins 40 secs). Saturn has an orbital period of 29.447498, rounded to 29.4 (1 hr 38 mins 20 secs). Uranus has an orbital period of 84.016846, rounded to 84 (4 hrs 40 mins). Finally, Neptune has an orbital period of 164.79132, rounded to 164.8 (9  hrs 9 mins 20 secs).

 

Although the theoretical aspects of the work are complete, a longer duration will be required to realise The Divine Monochord. This is a duration that is without end. The work can continue indefinitely through generations if there is someone willing to continue the realisation. It is also a duration that is equally without beginning. The data is complete to realise the work in retrograde before the current point of entry.

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