Notes as Vertices: An Exploration of Sonic Parallelogram Shapes
Pretty straightforward; I wanted to explore the idea of shapes on sheet music using notes as vertices. As an experiment for a first piece, I created groups of four notes using parallel intervallic structures in imitation of parallelograms. I felt these sound shapes would be more easily discernible if they were isolated in time, with lots of reverb, as if floating islands of sound.
Here it is: Parallelogram for Flute:
https://youtu.be/ziC3-1-wvCQ
Adapting Literary Ideas to Music: Paraphrase No. 1 for Piccolo and Trombone
At some point in my late adolescence, I watched a presentation on a Brazilian composer who would take literary ideas, such as metaphor, simile or anaphora, and apply them to music. I don't remember the composer or his work; I was more captivated by the concept.
The idea of applying literary procedures to music wasn't completely new to me; I had been experimenting with Surrealist techniques around this time as well, many of which were developed for writing and which I wanted to apply to music, such as automatic writing and exquisite cadaver. But it was that presentation which reinforced its artistic validity in some way for me and inspired me to continue with these types of experiments. Paraphrase No. 1 was one such experiment.
The ideas was to take the idea of paraphrase, which is to say the same thing with different words, (hm....the definition of paraphrase is itself a paraphrase of paraphrase...), and apply it to music. I chose two instruments. The idea would be to have both of them use the same melody, with the same pitch structure, dynamics and articulation, but varying the rhythm, perhaps the key, and other possible parameters. I chose a piccolo, which has the highest register, and the trombone, which has one of the lowest (I don't recall why I didn't choose the tuba). They are both metallic instruments, but at opposite ends of the register, which I found amusing and good for contrast.
My friend Mariaceli Navarro performed this piece with Alonso Olvera on her Piccolegio Youtube channel. Here is the result:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC5AY2j2zww
(The score is here:
https://ks15.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/7/76/IMSLP354354-PMLP572289-Paraphrase_No._1.pdf )
Cryptotonality: A Compositional Framework
About twenty years ago, I started experimenting with a process I called "pseudotonality"; the idea is simple. A tonal composition (the "skeleton") is made, and then selected notes are sharped, flatted or otherwise changed by small intervals to give a sense of atonality, error, or distortion of expectations in the listener while preserving a tonal essence. It may sound like the performer is inebriated, playing wrong notes left and right, when such is not the case; the "errors" are intentional. By varying the frequency and nature of the distortions, a myriad atonal-sounding variations of a melody or a harmony can be made, parallel keys explored, and avenues for development opened up.
One of my first experiments in this vein was my first piano sonata:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_No.1_(Bernardez%2C_Pedro)
The original tonal theme of the first movement (https://youtu.be/sGJuRCzPM5M) was in C major, starting from the V chord. Yet from the start, notes are changed every which way. Only for a moment in the development is the tonal skeleton ironically fully revealed, before recapitulating to the distorted opening theme.
The slow second movement (https://youtu.be/02JKtaoOb-E) is in "A minor", and the last one, a sprightly vivace inspired partly by Venezuelan music (https://youtu.be/UhlOFd865B0), is in "C major".
Other pieces that tap into this framework include Sonatina in C, and Ragtime No. 22 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDHaGsW9FuU). I still use it from time to time.
Last year, I realized that "pseudotonality" ("false tonality") doesn't quite reflect the concept, and that "cryptotonality" ("hidden tonality") is a better descriptor.