Recital 2020: Spectrogram & analysis
I believe this area shows the processed vocal parts at the beginning quite well. I made them with whispers and percussive tongue clicks + effects (details in my journal). Even though they are super cheesy, I left them in because they were also pretty effective. It represents the world before the structure was built. Everything that follows tells a story of both the Spire AND the personal journey of the pilgrims who travel there.
The Starlings were supposed to be a little erratic and urgent, in the same unconscious way of "The Devil". I wanted them to be a little piercing and uncomfortable.
Stalagmites & Stalactites. These were the most invasive and encompassing events in the piece, and one of the most uniform. I imagine the physical structure this piece is based on is in the desert and made of rock so wanted to emulate the forming and falling of rocks and stones. I purposely didn't develop the timbre in each section/speaker pair because I wanted the middle section to be a kind of pivot point - the literal building of the structure as well as the kind of peak before the supposed "enlightenment" this place enforces on the beings who approach it. This is Lucifer's section - the vocal parts start half way through this section, I was purposefully trying to make them sound angelic to symbolise the light cutting through the darkness (the same way you can take Lucifer as being the Morning Star, The Light Bearer: bringing the light of "consciousness" to the unconscious mind).
Here you can see the calm after the intense experience, this is the peaceful section represented by Jesus. There are still vocal drones and mostly bass sounds to make it feel full and grounded. I wanted this section to be really meditative and so I developed the timbres through the speakers very subtly so you have to focus to be able to hear them. There are also "booms" as the Spire is fully built at this point. These are based on a New Age idea of there being "frequencies" throughout the Universe: supposedly two opposing "frequencies" can't occupy the same space and so the "lower" one must rise to meet the "higher" one. The Spire emits these frequencies to entrain with anyone who approaches it - literally forcing enlightenment and/or ascension.
5. I've included this spectrogram because it shows the frequencies being used more clearly. This is important to be able to see the overall structure of the piece: there are fuller, more intense parts at at either end of the pivot point in the middle. Just before the point though I have a really nice, serene sounding texture which I think made the rocky section more impactful. This is one of my favourite parts in the piece.
6. So that nice texture was made by mostly stopping the bass and adding resonators + delay.
7. The lines here are thicker and brighter so I think that shows the more drone-like nature of the second half of the piece. This was important to develop from chaotic spurts to the peaceful resolution.
Some articles to help you understand my concept:
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