Sometimes I catch myself searching for meaning in the most common things that surround us. I'm not superstitious and do not know numerology, but it is interesting to me when I see, for example, that the numbers in the dates match or are symmetrical. Or when I see repeating numbers on the digital clock. Also, it is just weird that these days everything revolves around the number three. I could not leave this number just go into oblivion without giving it a bit more attention. It will even come to this Spread the Vibes post as almost the main actor, and if you are interested to find out why, please continue reading but it would be nice if at the same time you would press the play button on the video... believe me, it will still play when you finish the reading of this post... as it lasts for 9 minutes and 45 seconds...
Coming back to numbers... this number 3 which could not stop proving to be important and which encouraged me to write and publish this post today, has a meaning. I know that in some cultures, it is considered to bring luck, but I also found other interesting interpretations. Back in time, when in Greece philosophy still was a thing, the number 3 was considered as the perfect number. It was the number of harmony, wisdom, and understanding. Not bad, I would say... some values we all should search for. Oh, apparently it was also the number of time, so past, present, and future are brought all together. We could also think of birth, life, and death. In one word – it was the number of the divine.
We can go further. Three is often the magic number in fairy tales. Earth is the third planet from the Sun. There are three types of galaxies: elliptical, spiral, and irregular. Our human ear has three semicircular canals. We distinguish the universe in three dimensions. Atoms are made up of three particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. When we want to perform something in synchronicity with others, we usually count until three. Some people should set the counter for future spread the vibes to three... Others will receive a third invitation. There are trilogy songs shared here recently... As I said before, everything revolves around the number three these days.
Three will be also the number of people that I will invite to follow up with this challenge not challenge. I said challenge? Practically, it can be seen as a challenge as there are some guidelines we can follow if we read the launching post. It was published some months ago, soon it will be a year actually... wow, how time flies but one thing is not fading away! The willingness to spread some vibes. Even when the vibes that I bring here are silence or seemingly random sounds made on piano, with the damper pedal lifted through the whole composition. (You are listening to it, right? Just checking, as I said, it lasts for...a bit of time). John Cage already inspired some pianists with his way of thinking and with some of his pieces, like the famous 4:33. Four and a half minutes of silence inspired Nils Frahm to make his piece 4:33 a Tribute to John Cage. Edje picked this track to showcase in HIS POST I AM RESPONDING TO , although the whole album is what he meant to be his entry. An album called Old Friends New Friends, that brought him a real-like listening experience, feelings of a very close and personal sound, brought even closer by the darkness and just a few sparks that reached his place. Was it a perfect set-up to those moments? I bet it was, as I "tested" the album in a similar way. The landscape for that listening has to be a dark place and loneliness.
Lonely piano waiting to bring sound...
I know, it would be cool if my response would be the 4:33 piece, but the landscape is what came instead. Imagine a wide space, before the dawn, the Sun still doesn't seem to bring the light but some stars are trying to break the complete darkness. Fog over the river, which mingles with reality combined with some remote sounds of mysterious bells, probably of fictional beings. This is how I hear the composition In a Landscape, you are listening to. Composer, as I mentioned, John Cage. Many of his works are experimental, even with electronic sounds, and also using everyday objects to make the piano sound different and peculiar. Paper, rubbers, threads, long bolts, penny placed between the strings of a grand piano. Another important thing in his music is structure and rhythmical order. Seems that he liked the numbers also, as for the composition I performed here, his instructions state: 15 x 15 (5.7.3.). It means that the piece has 15 parts, made up of 15 measures each. Each part is divided into three musical phrases of 5 measure, then 7 and 3 measure. Not that a listener would count the measures, parts, and phrases... I could skip or add parts, and maybe you would not even notice, but it was John Cage's idea how this composition would be balanced. Another note was: damper pedal and una corda pedal lifted all the time, from the beginning to the last measure, where the performer has to release both pedals and play a D minor chord without sounding. In this way, we obtain harmonics, which are the higher frequencies that resonate upon a fundamental tone. It is very soft, I hope you can hear it. It is when I at the end release the pedals but I hold the chord. Very soft frequencies can be heard until they fade away completely by themselves.
To record this composition, I couldn't use the electric piano I have at home. I needed a grand piano. Luckily, a friend of mine could offer me his studio, a place where he practices and records music. BUT! He recently changed a complete octave of strings, and the tuner was there about a month ago. It has to be tuned again now, as the strings loosen until they are not completely set. This can cause some tones to not have a perfect pitch, but I hope you don't mind too much. I recorded the video and the sound from the resonant box, it is what you see on the video. I feel the sound is louder this way than if you would listen to it from another place, even just a few steps away. And it is a video, believe me, although you can think it is just a photo as minimal moves you can notice. It is because the damper pedal is lifted all the time so they dont move as normally would, and the hammers we can not see from this angle as in a grand piano they are below the strings.
The crime scene for recording the piece...
If you are still here, reading this post, and excited to see who will be the three invites in this edition of Spread The Vibes, here we go with the announcement of the lucky winners (although they still dont know how lucky they are ;) )
▶️ 3Speak