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Doot Doot

Two knocks and a reply in falling thirds: 76 bars of e harmonic minor, half of them the riff played against itself upside down

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% Two notes, knocked out on one pitch, and the piece is named after
% them. Everything in these seventy-six measures answers that knock.
%
% The measure is sixteen sixteenths at 144. The riff's first half is two
% knocks a quarter apart; its second half is four STACCATO eighths, and
% a staccato eighth here is a note plus the rest behind it, so it is a
% cell with one hole, tiled over whatever pitches it is handed.
 
bpm 144
instrument chiptune
meter 4
unit 1/4
key e4 harm
 
Tick ::= $1 -
 
% The four eighths that close the odd measure climb the tonic triad,
% e g e b. Then the measure itself: knock, knock, call.
 
Call ::= Tick(1 3 1 5)
Doot ::= 1 -*3 1 -*3 Call
 
% The even measure replies in FALLING THIRDS (c a, c a, b g, a f#),
% four of them, each of the last two a step lower than the pair before
% it. It is written as four calls and not one, because those thirds are
% the joints the piece cuts itself at later. And the sparse reply is
% that measure with its first two thirds hollowed out to two knocks:
 
Answer ::= Tick(6 4) Tick(6 4) Tick(5 3) Tick(4 2)
Dit    ::= 6 -*3 6 -*3 Answer[2:]
 
assert Answer[2:] == Tick(5 3 4 2)
 
Doot Dit Doot Dit
 
 
% A ground comes in under it: one whole note to the measure, four
% measures round: e, c, a, g. That is the entire harmony of the piece,
% and it never changes for the rest of it.
 
Ground<bass> ::= .1 _16 .6 _16 ..4 _16 .3 _16
 
% In the second half of m.8 a third voice steps in with four notes
% coming down. They are the head of a scale that will run a full octave
% from m.10 on; here only its first four sound, and two octaves down:
% an octave is an octave in any mode, so that mark is chromatic.
 
Scale ::= '6 '5 '4 '3 '2 '1 7 6
 
{{Doot Dit}*2,
  Ground,
  -*56 {Scale[:4]@-24} _2}
 
 
% Now the bass says something of its own, and it is ONE four-note cell
% that turns out to be the engine of the whole piece: a note, the third
% above, back, the third below. Four notes rocking.
 
Rock ::= .3 .5 .3 .1
 
% Rocked a step higher it would land on f#. The piece lands it on the
% TONIC instead, every single time it sounds. That one changed note is
% what makes the answering half a cadence and not another sequence:
 
Home  ::= Rock@~1 \3 {.1}
Bass  ::= Rock Home
Under ::= Rock@~-4 Home
 
assert Home == .4 .6 .4 .1
 
% Over it the upper voice alternates the octave scale coming down with
% the same scale going up, two octaves and a fourth below. One rule,
% both directions: '~' reverses it, '@~-17' puts it where it sounds.
 
Stair ::= Scale~@~-17
 
assert Stair == ..3 ..4 ..5 ..6 ..7 .1 .2 .3
 
{{Doot Dit}*4,
  Bass _2 Scale _2 Under _2 Stair _2 Bass _2 Scale _2 Under _2 Stair@~-1 _2,
  Ground*2}
 
 
% The riff fills its own first half in. Where m.1 knocked twice on the
% e, m.17 plays the call TWICE, and the first time it ends on the b
% BELOW instead of the b above. The two busy measures differ in exactly
% that one note, so the second is the first with item 6 overridden:
 
Roll ::= Tick(1 3 1 .5) Call
Ring ::= Roll \6 {3}
 
assert Ring == Tick(1 3 1 3 1 3 1 5)
 
% The upper voice's last two entries are new. A peal: a turn at the
% top, then the scale falling to the leading tone and resolving up.
% Then THE SAME FIGURE UPSIDE DOWN, down in the bass: '^' mirrors
% about the tonic, and needs no transposition at all to land exactly
% where the piece puts it.
 
Peal  ::= '4 '5 '4 '3 '2 '1 7 '1
Knell ::= Peal^
 
assert Peal[2:7] == Scale[2:7]
assert Knell == ..5 ..4 ..5 ..6 ..7 .1 .2 .1
 
{{Roll Answer Ring Answer}*2,
  Bass _2 Scale _2 Under _2 Stair _2 Bass _2 Peal _2 Under _2 Knell _2,
  Ground*2}
 
 
% And here is the structural idea of the piece, which carries
% thirty-two of its seventy-six measures: THE RIFF IS PLAYED AGAINST
% ITSELF UPSIDE DOWN. 'Doot^@~-2' is the knock mirrored about e and set
% two steps lower; 'Answer^@~-2' does that to the falling thirds, and
% they come back rising. Not one note is rewritten.
%
% The bass meanwhile takes its rocking figure five steps up, into the
% register the riff had, and one more bell joins in: this one
% oscillating on two pairs instead of running a scale:
 
Toll ::= '4 '5 '4 '5 7 '1 7 '1
 
assert Doot^@~-2 == .6 -*3 .6 -*3 Tick(.6 .4 .6 .2)
assert Answer^@~-2 == Tick(.1 .3 .1 .3 .2 .4 .3 .5)
assert Toll^ == ..5 ..4 ..5 ..4 .2 .1 .2 .1
 
% Sixteen measures. They come back whole at m.57, so they are one name:
 
Verse ::= {Doot Bass _2 Doot Answer Doot Bass _2 Doot Bass _2 {Roll Answer Ring Answer}*2,
  -*16 Bass@~5 _2 -*48 Bass@~5 _2 Stair _2 Bass@~5 _2 Bass _2 Scale _2 Under _2 Stair _2 Bass _2 Toll _2 Under _2 Toll^ _2,
  Doot^@~-2 -*16 Doot^@~-2 Answer^@~-2 Doot^@~-2 -*16 Doot^@~-2 {Knell \7 {-}} _2 -*128,
  -*96 Scale _2 Knell@24 _2 Ground*2}
 
Verse
 
 
% This is what the replying measure was FOR. mm.41-47 are that measure
% and almost nothing else, moved (two steps down, three up, six down)
% and then said over again. Its four falling thirds are the texture now.
 
assert Answer@~-2 == Tick(4 2 4 2 3 1 2 .7)
 
% The one measure that is not it is m.44, and it is the same idea from
% the other end: the thirds still fall, but each pair now starts a
% third HIGHER than the last, so the measure climbs d# f# a c: a
% diminished seventh, which the bass then stacks in quarters two
% octaves down and sits on for the whole of the run to come.
 
Rise  ::= Tick(.7 .5 2 .7 4 2 6 4)
Stack ::= ..1 ..3 ..5 ..7
 
assert Stack@~13 == .7 2 4 6
 
% m.46 holds its seventh note a full eighth and the bell above it drops
% one strike, the only place in the piece the machine breathes.
 
{Answer@~-2 Answer@~3 Answer@~-6 Rise Answer@~-2 {Answer[:3]@~3 7 _2 5 -} Answer@~-6,
  -*32 ..4 _16 Stack _4 Bass _2 {Toll \6 {-}} _2 Under _2,
  Ground[:2] -*32 Ground[:3]}
 
 
% The sixteenths arrive, and they are the rocking cell at speed: four
% of it to the measure, taken two at a time, the second pair a third
% above the first.
 
Lift ::= Rock Rock@~2
 
assert Lift == .3 .5 .3 .1 .5 .7 .5 .3
 
% mm.48, 50 and 52 climb four thirds from the bottom of the bass, e2
% up to a3. Every measure between them begins on the same pair: a and
% c. And they differ only in where the second half starts: a third
% below at m.49, a fourth below at m.51 and then a SIXTH lower again,
% which is the one place two Lifts will not fit and is the cadence, and
% a fifth ABOVE at m.53, as high as the run goes. mm.54 and 55 restate
% m.49 and m.51 with a voice above them playing m.49's own shape, a
% seventh up and then a fifth lower.
%
% m.56 leans the dominant back into the reprise: two rising thirds a
% step apart, doubled six steps below.
 
Lean ::= 1 3 .7 2
 
{Lift@~-7 Lift@~-3 Lift@~1 Lift@~-1
  Lift@~-7 Lift@~-3 Lift@~1 Rock@~-2 Rock@~-7
  Lift@~-7 Lift@~-3 Lift@~1 Lift@~5
  Lift@~1 Lift@~-1 Lift@~1 Rock@~-2 Rock@~-7 Lift@~1 Lift,
  -*96 Lift@~7 Lift@~5 Lift@~3 Lift@~1 Lean _4,
  Stack@~6 _4 -*16 Stack@~6 _4 -*16 Stack@~6 _4 Stack@~14 _4 -*32 Lean@~-6 _4,
  Stack _4 -*16 Stack _4 -*16 Stack _4 Stack@~8 _4 -*48}
 
 
% mm.57-72 are mm.25-40 again, note for note, in all four voices,
% including the peal's inversion and the two measures where the bass
% comes up into the riff's register. One name says all sixteen.
 
Verse
 
 
% And the close: the replying measure three times exactly as at m.41,
% and then a fourth statement fifteen steps down: the falling thirds
% walked off the bottom of the keyboard.
%
% Its last third is written out, because the file ends ON the note:
% there is no rest behind the final sixteenth, so the piece is one unit
% short of a seventy-sixth full measure.
 
{Answer@~-2 Answer@~3 Answer@~-6 Answer[:3]@~-15 ..3 - ..1,
  Ground[:2] -*31}

% Two notes, knocked out on one pitch, and the piece is named after
% them. Everything in these seventy-six measures answers that knock.
%
% The measure is sixteen sixteenths at 144. The riff's first half is two
% knocks a quarter apart; its second half is four STACCATO eighths, and
% a staccato eighth here is a note plus the rest behind it, so it is a
% cell with one hole, tiled over whatever pitches it is handed.

bpm 144
instrument chiptune
meter 4
unit 1/4
key e4 harm

Tick ::= $1 -

% The four eighths that close the odd measure climb the tonic triad,
% e g e b. Then the measure itself: knock, knock, call.

Call ::= Tick(1 3 1 5)
Doot ::= 1 -*3 1 -*3 Call

% The even measure replies in FALLING THIRDS (c a, c a, b g, a f#),
% four of them, each of the last two a step lower than the pair before
% it. It is written as four calls and not one, because those thirds are
% the joints the piece cuts itself at later. And the sparse reply is
% that measure with its first two thirds hollowed out to two knocks:

Answer ::= Tick(6 4) Tick(6 4) Tick(5 3) Tick(4 2)
Dit    ::= 6 -*3 6 -*3 Answer[2:]

assert Answer[2:] == Tick(5 3 4 2)

Doot Dit Doot Dit

% A ground comes in under it: one whole note to the measure, four
% measures round: e, c, a, g. That is the entire harmony of the piece,
% and it never changes for the rest of it.

Ground<bass> ::= .1 _16 .6 _16 ..4 _16 .3 _16

% In the second half of m.8 a third voice steps in with four notes
% coming down. They are the head of a scale that will run a full octave
% from m.10 on; here only its first four sound, and two octaves down:
% an octave is an octave in any mode, so that mark is chromatic.

Scale ::= '6 '5 '4 '3 '2 '1 7 6

{{Doot Dit}*2,
  Ground,
  -*56 {Scale[:4]@-24} _2}

% Now the bass says something of its own, and it is ONE four-note cell
% that turns out to be the engine of the whole piece: a note, the third
% above, back, the third below. Four notes rocking.

Rock ::= .3 .5 .3 .1

% Rocked a step higher it would land on f#. The piece lands it on the
% TONIC instead, every single time it sounds. That one changed note is
% what makes the answering half a cadence and not another sequence:

Home  ::= Rock@~1 \3 {.1}
Bass  ::= Rock Home
Under ::= Rock@~-4 Home

assert Home == .4 .6 .4 .1

% Over it the upper voice alternates the octave scale coming down with
% the same scale going up, two octaves and a fourth below. One rule,
% both directions: '~' reverses it, '@~-17' puts it where it sounds.

Stair ::= Scale~@~-17

assert Stair == ..3 ..4 ..5 ..6 ..7 .1 .2 .3

{{Doot Dit}*4,
  Bass _2 Scale _2 Under _2 Stair _2 Bass _2 Scale _2 Under _2 Stair@~-1 _2,
  Ground*2}

% The riff fills its own first half in. Where m.1 knocked twice on the
% e, m.17 plays the call TWICE, and the first time it ends on the b
% BELOW instead of the b above. The two busy measures differ in exactly
% that one note, so the second is the first with item 6 overridden:

Roll ::= Tick(1 3 1 .5) Call
Ring ::= Roll \6 {3}

assert Ring == Tick(1 3 1 3 1 3 1 5)

% The upper voice's last two entries are new. A peal: a turn at the
% top, then the scale falling to the leading tone and resolving up.
% Then THE SAME FIGURE UPSIDE DOWN, down in the bass: '^' mirrors
% about the tonic, and needs no transposition at all to land exactly
% where the piece puts it.

Peal  ::= '4 '5 '4 '3 '2 '1 7 '1
Knell ::= Peal^

assert Peal[2:7] == Scale[2:7]
assert Knell == ..5 ..4 ..5 ..6 ..7 .1 .2 .1

{{Roll Answer Ring Answer}*2,
  Bass _2 Scale _2 Under _2 Stair _2 Bass _2 Peal _2 Under _2 Knell _2,
  Ground*2}

% And here is the structural idea of the piece, which carries
% thirty-two of its seventy-six measures: THE RIFF IS PLAYED AGAINST
% ITSELF UPSIDE DOWN. 'Doot^@~-2' is the knock mirrored about e and set
% two steps lower; 'Answer^@~-2' does that to the falling thirds, and
% they come back rising. Not one note is rewritten.
%
% The bass meanwhile takes its rocking figure five steps up, into the
% register the riff had, and one more bell joins in: this one
% oscillating on two pairs instead of running a scale:

Toll ::= '4 '5 '4 '5 7 '1 7 '1

assert Doot^@~-2 == .6 -*3 .6 -*3 Tick(.6 .4 .6 .2)
assert Answer^@~-2 == Tick(.1 .3 .1 .3 .2 .4 .3 .5)
assert Toll^ == ..5 ..4 ..5 ..4 .2 .1 .2 .1

% Sixteen measures. They come back whole at m.57, so they are one name:

Verse ::= {Doot Bass _2 Doot Answer Doot Bass _2 Doot Bass _2 {Roll Answer Ring Answer}*2,
  -*16 Bass@~5 _2 -*48 Bass@~5 _2 Stair _2 Bass@~5 _2 Bass _2 Scale _2 Under _2 Stair _2 Bass _2 Toll _2 Under _2 Toll^ _2,
  Doot^@~-2 -*16 Doot^@~-2 Answer^@~-2 Doot^@~-2 -*16 Doot^@~-2 {Knell \7 {-}} _2 -*128,
  -*96 Scale _2 Knell@24 _2 Ground*2}

Verse

% This is what the replying measure was FOR. mm.41-47 are that measure
% and almost nothing else, moved (two steps down, three up, six down)
% and then said over again. Its four falling thirds are the texture now.

assert Answer@~-2 == Tick(4 2 4 2 3 1 2 .7)

% The one measure that is not it is m.44, and it is the same idea from
% the other end: the thirds still fall, but each pair now starts a
% third HIGHER than the last, so the measure climbs d# f# a c: a
% diminished seventh, which the bass then stacks in quarters two
% octaves down and sits on for the whole of the run to come.

Rise  ::= Tick(.7 .5 2 .7 4 2 6 4)
Stack ::= ..1 ..3 ..5 ..7

assert Stack@~13 == .7 2 4 6

% m.46 holds its seventh note a full eighth and the bell above it drops
% one strike, the only place in the piece the machine breathes.

{Answer@~-2 Answer@~3 Answer@~-6 Rise Answer@~-2 {Answer[:3]@~3 7 _2 5 -} Answer@~-6,
  -*32 ..4 _16 Stack _4 Bass _2 {Toll \6 {-}} _2 Under _2,
  Ground[:2] -*32 Ground[:3]}

% The sixteenths arrive, and they are the rocking cell at speed: four
% of it to the measure, taken two at a time, the second pair a third
% above the first.

Lift ::= Rock Rock@~2

assert Lift == .3 .5 .3 .1 .5 .7 .5 .3

% mm.48, 50 and 52 climb four thirds from the bottom of the bass, e2
% up to a3. Every measure between them begins on the same pair: a and
% c. And they differ only in where the second half starts: a third
% below at m.49, a fourth below at m.51 and then a SIXTH lower again,
% which is the one place two Lifts will not fit and is the cadence, and
% a fifth ABOVE at m.53, as high as the run goes. mm.54 and 55 restate
% m.49 and m.51 with a voice above them playing m.49's own shape, a
% seventh up and then a fifth lower.
%
% m.56 leans the dominant back into the reprise: two rising thirds a
% step apart, doubled six steps below.

Lean ::= 1 3 .7 2

{Lift@~-7 Lift@~-3 Lift@~1 Lift@~-1
  Lift@~-7 Lift@~-3 Lift@~1 Rock@~-2 Rock@~-7
  Lift@~-7 Lift@~-3 Lift@~1 Lift@~5
  Lift@~1 Lift@~-1 Lift@~1 Rock@~-2 Rock@~-7 Lift@~1 Lift,
  -*96 Lift@~7 Lift@~5 Lift@~3 Lift@~1 Lean _4,
  Stack@~6 _4 -*16 Stack@~6 _4 -*16 Stack@~6 _4 Stack@~14 _4 -*32 Lean@~-6 _4,
  Stack _4 -*16 Stack _4 -*16 Stack _4 Stack@~8 _4 -*48}

% mm.57-72 are mm.25-40 again, note for note, in all four voices,
% including the peal's inversion and the two measures where the bass
% comes up into the riff's register. One name says all sixteen.

Verse

% And the close: the replying measure three times exactly as at m.41,
% and then a fourth statement fifteen steps down: the falling thirds
% walked off the bottom of the keyboard.
%
% Its last third is written out, because the file ends ON the note:
% there is no rest behind the final sixteenth, so the piece is one unit
% short of a seventy-sixth full measure.

{Answer@~-2 Answer@~3 Answer@~-6 Answer[:3]@~-15 ..3 - ..1,
  Ground[:2] -*31}

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Doot Doot · Showcase