message to the Jemisin
the Butler will not rendezvous
Clarke V will meet at Waypoint
est delay 440 Sol
So, as with last year, things are already getting kind of weird for me as I follow ideas with less judgment than I might otherwise.
In this continuation of the space story, a message is sent out over the distance in a classic format — morse code. (And when it comes to one note compositions, morse code comes to mind immediately for me.)
This message brings vague news to the crew of the Jemisin, “The Butler will not rendezvous.” Instead, the Clarke V will arrive over one earth year later.
Construction:
I wrote the words and translated them to Morse Code. I assigned a three-beat value to the dash and a one-beat value to the dots. I included a high-one-beat-dot as the “pause” and a seven-beat note as the indication that the word had ended, doubling when the sentence ended.
The result is oddly rhythmic to me, and kind of trancelike. I layered the message against other sections to provide more depth. I included a brief vocal message to accompany it as well, but it’s far from the focus of this piece.
I will probably experiment with this more deeply going forward. I’m very interested in how this assigned rhythm language of Morse Code can be mapped to notes in different ways.
In terms of sounds – I was trying for sounds that could make the morse code “work” but also be sonically interesting to me and provide a sense of environment and…conflict, a bit. Lacking a mig engine to play on, I had to make due with some crystal bell synths.
The ships are named for N. K. Jemisin, Octavia E. Butler, and the Clarke V is in homage to Arthur C. Clark.
Lyrics
message to the Jemisin
the Butler will not rendezvous
Clarke V will meet at Waypoint
est delay 440 Sol
— . … … .- –. . / – — / – …. . / .— . — .. … .. -.
– …. . / -… ..- – .-.. . .-. / .– .. .-.. .-.. / -. — – / .-. . -. -.. . –.. …- — ..- …
-.-. .-.. .- .-. -.- . / …- / .– .. .-.. .-.. / — . . – / .- – / .– .- -.– .–. — .. -. –
. … – / -.. . .-.. .- -.– / ….- ….- —– / … — .-..