counter)induction

“The first musical idea of this piece comes from Mongolian folk music—a Jew’s Harp song, which is sung by a male vocalist, who hums a low base note while producing higher partials at the same time. This unique and fascinating vocal sound makes me imagine far more than one single male singer: horse-fiddle playing, green plains under the blue sky, flying eagles, running sheep, racing horses… young girls’ love songs. Another idea is also from Mongolian music: the “Long Tune,” which is imitative polyphony of long melodic lines, sung by solo singers. The charms of the Long Tune are the microtonal ornamentations and nuances each singer improvises while they repeat the same main melody. In the middle section, there are very fast agitating rhythms, which reflect the excitement felt around the fire dances at night on the plain. The chou he idea can be found in the texture of this piece, which corresponds to my favorite part of Kyle’s music: the beautiful textures, which always have many different layers, which she creates in spite of the sparse instrumentation of the string duo [in Night Vision], and the resulting unique instrumental sounds.“ WL