[Celtic] Loki (OGG)

[rncekel]

Well, in fact celtic isn't really appropiate for this song, but I don't know better. Loki is the only northern god that I find interesting: as the only intelligent god, it is also ambivalent, with a good side (for example, he is the maker of the arms of the other gods) and a bad side (he is the traitor that leads the monster against the gods, causing the final destruction). This double character is symbolised here by the soft and gentle harp melody (part of the harp solo traces back to a piano excerpt I wrote by the sea in the 70's) and the terrible 21/8 (the bass melody goes 5+5+5+3+3, the clarinet plays at countertime while the drummer feet play 7+7+7 and 6+6+6+6+6+6+6).

ftp://ftp.scenesp.org/pub/modulez/rncekel/loki.zip

[Sam_Zen]

Great. First, I was sitting on my hands, thinking : where's this 'terrible 21/8' ? Then it broke loose at 3:50 ..  

I don't trust gods, but then also an intelligent one? Must be very ambivalent indeed ..  

[bad2989]

The terrible 21/8 works out pretty good! I was al little sceptical and tried it in a pattern for my self, but it is sweet.

[rncekel]

Yes, it is a very nice rhythm. I wonder why I have never heard it before. It makes possible to combine groups of 3 with groups of 7 equal notes, creating fascinating polyrhythms (apart from the idea of mixing it with other combinations...)

[aGIANTpupafish]

very nice to begin with.  not sure about some of the samples but i wont be put off.

i like the harp.

loved the 21/8 but some of the samples are still a bit ugly.  i like the composition much more than the sound tbh.

[Saga Musix]

some instrument really sound out-of-tune, especially in the beginning, but it's a nice composition! the 21/8 sounds really great.
btw, what's that instrument that starts to play at 0:20 called again? is it supposed to be a bagpipe?

[Sam_Zen]

It surely is played like a bagpipe. I like the short phrase further on with sea and bird too.

Some associations :
I checked the Tala list in my tabla book, but couldn't find one with 21 'matras'. It skips from 17 to 28.
But I'm sure it could have some subdivision like 5+5+5+3+3. Done with melodic or rhythmic accents within the cycle.
Of course 21 is the first common denominator of 3 and 7. In ragas : the 'one'.
In this case the drummer uses 6 and 7, so the 'one' point is doubled to 42, with twice the bass melody.
Polyrhythm isn't just some mix of different bars. Somewhere it has its common value, even with bigger prime numbers,
resulting in a common cycle with the smaller simultaneous cycles in it.

And a question :
I'm curious about the pattern-length you used here.

[rncekel]

To Jojo:
The instrument is in fact a synth, but trying to mimic a bagpipe.
To Sam Zen:
For the 21/8 I used a pattern length of 84, lasting two bars, so each row was a 16th.