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Noodlin'

A bass riff, a tune doubled in thirds, and a bell that ends it twice

% The whole piece stands on one bar of bass: a fifth, its neighbour a
% scale step away, the fifth again, then the other note of the fifth
% twice, low and flat. Rock is that bar over C; Plunge is the same
% figure on the dominant, but its answering pair is thrown UP: b3,
% an octave and a fourth above the f# under it, where every other bar
% of the riff puts its pair down. That is the one leap the bass ever
% makes in sixty measures. Ground puts the three in order, and its
% third bar is simply Rock two scale steps down, which is where e
% harmonic minor hands the neighbour its d#.
%
% Everything below is written in bare steps and stated '_2', because
% the piece moves in eighths and nothing in it is ever faster.
 
bpm 144
instrument chiptune
meter 4
unit 1/4
key e4 harm
mode diatonic
 
Rock ::= .3 .2 .3 - ..6 - ..6 -
Plunge ::= ..2 ..1 ..2 - .5 - .5 -
Ground<bass> ::= Rock Plunge Rock@~-2 Rock
 
Ground[:16] _2
assert Rock@~-2 == .1 ..7 .1 - ..4 - ..4 -
 
 
% mm.3-4: the tune does not start at its start. It comes in halfway
% through its own third bar, on a c5 nothing has sounded yet, and
% only the last twelve steps of it are heard before the ground moves
% on, the first thing above the bass in the whole piece. Tune is
% that four-bar melody written whole, so the entry can be a slice of
% it: 'Tune[20:]' is everything from that c onward.
 
Tune ::= 2 3 4 3 - 3 - 3 2 1 2 3 - 3 - 3 1 .7 1 - 6 - 4 - 3 2 1 .7 - .7 - .7
 
{Ground[16:], -*4 Tune[20:]} _2
assert Tune[20:24] == 6 - 4 -
 
 
% mm.5-8: the neighbour turns over. Where Rock leans a step DOWN,
% Turn leans a step UP, and that one change lets the bass climb:
% Climb is Turn at the tonic, then two, three and seven scale steps
% above it. Echo is what sits on top, and it is the riff two octaves
% up, but only in the first bar all the way. After that the three
% opening notes are still the riff's and the answering pair stays
% down where the hand already is, so the line never leaves the
% octave it has reached.
 
Turn ::= ..1 ..2 ..1 - ..5 - ..5 -
Climb ::= Turn Turn@~2 Turn@~3 Turn@~7
Echo ::= 1 2 1 - 5 - 5 - 3 4 3 - 3 - 3 - 4 5 4 - 1 - 1 - '1 '2 '1 - 3 - 1 -
 
{Climb, Echo} _2
assert Echo[:8] == Turn@~14
assert Turn@~2 == ..3 ..4 ..3 - ..7 - ..7 -
 
 
% mm.9-12: the ground comes round again and now the tune is heard
% whole over it: up to the fourth and back, down to the tonic and its
% leading tone, a reach to the c above, and a scale that falls from g
% to d# and will not leave it.
 
{Ground, Tune} _2
 
 
% mm.13-16: the climb is dealt again in a new order (three, one,
% two, seven) and the answer above it comes back CORRECTED. Its
% first bar holds its pair back by an eighth; its second is Turn two
% octaves and two steps up with nothing altered at all, so the d#5
% that Echo would not play is finally played; its last two bars stand
% exactly as they were.
 
{Turn@~3 Turn@~1 Turn@~2 Turn@~7,
 1 2 1 - - 5 - 5 Turn@~16 Echo[16:]} _2
assert Turn@~16 == 3 4 3 - 7 - 7 -
 
 
% mm.17-24: the bass drops out and the tune is doubled a third above
% itself. Answer is that doubling: the tune's first three bars two
% scale steps up, so the interval is a minor third over the tonic and
% a major one over the dominant, whichever the scale gives. In the
% fourth bar it will not fall with the tune: it waits two eighths,
% touches g and then holds the a while the tune walks down to d#.
% Verse is the pair of them, and the piece says it twice over.
 
Answer ::= Tune[:24]@~2 - - 3 4 - 4 - 4
Verse ::= {Tune, Answer}
 
Verse*2 _2
assert Tune[:8]@~2 == 4 5 6 5 - 5 - 5
 
 
% mm.25-28, a new gait: three beats struck flat, then three eighths
% spilling out over the fourth. Chant is the upper line and Mirror
% the lower, and Mirror earns its name: in the first bar it is Chant
% reflected around the tonic note for note ('^'), and in the third it
% is that reflection three steps lower. In the second and fourth bars
% the two break the mirror and walk the same way.
 
Chant ::= 3 - 3 - 3 4 5 4 - 1 - .6 - 3 4 3 1 - 1 - 1 2 3 2 1 - 1 - 1 .7 1 2
Mirror ::= .6 - .6 - .6 .5 .4 .5 - .3 - .3 - .3 .4 .3 .5 - .5 - .5 .4 .3 .4 .2 - .2 - .2 .3 .4 .5
Weave ::= {Chant, Mirror}
 
Weave _2
assert Mirror[:8] == Chant[:8]^
assert Mirror[16:24] == Chant[16:24]^@~-3
 
 
% mm.29-36: the bells. Toll strikes e, g, c, e in three octaves at
% once; the bar after it is the same four steps of the scale lower,
% which turns the octaves into F# diminished. Settle answers in plain
% triads (C, E minor, A minor, C) and the fourth bar is one E minor
% chord spread from e2 to b4 and held the whole measure. Knell is the
% four of them together. It is said twice here, and the second time
% the chant's own last two bars are laid over it.
 
Toll ::= {.1, 1, '1} - {.3, 3, '3} - {..6, .6, 6} - {.1, 1, '1} -
Settle ::= {..6, .1, .3} - {.1, .3, .5} - {..4, ..6, .1} - {..6, .1, .3} -
Knell ::= Toll Toll@~-4 Settle {..1, .3, 5} _8
 
Knell _2
{Knell, -*16 Chant[16:]} _2
assert Toll@~-4 == {..4, .4, 4} - {..6, .6, 6} - {..2, .2, 2} - {..4, .4, 4} -
 
 
% mm.37-40: the ground returns underneath, and what rides on it is
% the chant, whole, with no lower voice at all. Nothing here is new:
% two things the piece already owns, heard together for the first
% time.
 
{Ground, Chant} _2
 
 
% mm.41-48, and then all of it at once. Eight bars, three voices,
% and not one note that has not already been named: the ground and
% then the climb below, the tune and its third above them both.
 
{Ground, Verse} _2
{Climb, Verse} _2
 
 
% mm.49-60: the end is a repeat and a repeat. The weave once more,
% then the bells twice over, ending where every four bars of them
% end: one E minor chord across three octaves, held to the last
% sixteenth of the bar.
 
Weave _2
Knell*2 _2

% The whole piece stands on one bar of bass: a fifth, its neighbour a
% scale step away, the fifth again, then the other note of the fifth
% twice, low and flat. Rock is that bar over C; Plunge is the same
% figure on the dominant, but its answering pair is thrown UP: b3,
% an octave and a fourth above the f# under it, where every other bar
% of the riff puts its pair down. That is the one leap the bass ever
% makes in sixty measures. Ground puts the three in order, and its
% third bar is simply Rock two scale steps down, which is where e
% harmonic minor hands the neighbour its d#.
%
% Everything below is written in bare steps and stated '_2', because
% the piece moves in eighths and nothing in it is ever faster.

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

Rock ::= .3 .2 .3 - ..6 - ..6 -
Plunge ::= ..2 ..1 ..2 - .5 - .5 -
Ground<bass> ::= Rock Plunge Rock@~-2 Rock

Ground[:16] _2
assert Rock@~-2 == .1 ..7 .1 - ..4 - ..4 -

% mm.3-4: the tune does not start at its start. It comes in halfway
% through its own third bar, on a c5 nothing has sounded yet, and
% only the last twelve steps of it are heard before the ground moves
% on, the first thing above the bass in the whole piece. Tune is
% that four-bar melody written whole, so the entry can be a slice of
% it: 'Tune[20:]' is everything from that c onward.

Tune ::= 2 3 4 3 - 3 - 3 2 1 2 3 - 3 - 3 1 .7 1 - 6 - 4 - 3 2 1 .7 - .7 - .7

{Ground[16:], -*4 Tune[20:]} _2
assert Tune[20:24] == 6 - 4 -

% mm.5-8: the neighbour turns over. Where Rock leans a step DOWN,
% Turn leans a step UP, and that one change lets the bass climb:
% Climb is Turn at the tonic, then two, three and seven scale steps
% above it. Echo is what sits on top, and it is the riff two octaves
% up, but only in the first bar all the way. After that the three
% opening notes are still the riff's and the answering pair stays
% down where the hand already is, so the line never leaves the
% octave it has reached.

Turn ::= ..1 ..2 ..1 - ..5 - ..5 -
Climb ::= Turn Turn@~2 Turn@~3 Turn@~7
Echo ::= 1 2 1 - 5 - 5 - 3 4 3 - 3 - 3 - 4 5 4 - 1 - 1 - '1 '2 '1 - 3 - 1 -

{Climb, Echo} _2
assert Echo[:8] == Turn@~14
assert Turn@~2 == ..3 ..4 ..3 - ..7 - ..7 -

% mm.9-12: the ground comes round again and now the tune is heard
% whole over it: up to the fourth and back, down to the tonic and its
% leading tone, a reach to the c above, and a scale that falls from g
% to d# and will not leave it.

{Ground, Tune} _2

% mm.13-16: the climb is dealt again in a new order (three, one,
% two, seven) and the answer above it comes back CORRECTED. Its
% first bar holds its pair back by an eighth; its second is Turn two
% octaves and two steps up with nothing altered at all, so the d#5
% that Echo would not play is finally played; its last two bars stand
% exactly as they were.

{Turn@~3 Turn@~1 Turn@~2 Turn@~7,
 1 2 1 - - 5 - 5 Turn@~16 Echo[16:]} _2
assert Turn@~16 == 3 4 3 - 7 - 7 -

% mm.17-24: the bass drops out and the tune is doubled a third above
% itself. Answer is that doubling: the tune's first three bars two
% scale steps up, so the interval is a minor third over the tonic and
% a major one over the dominant, whichever the scale gives. In the
% fourth bar it will not fall with the tune: it waits two eighths,
% touches g and then holds the a while the tune walks down to d#.
% Verse is the pair of them, and the piece says it twice over.

Answer ::= Tune[:24]@~2 - - 3 4 - 4 - 4
Verse ::= {Tune, Answer}

Verse*2 _2
assert Tune[:8]@~2 == 4 5 6 5 - 5 - 5

% mm.25-28, a new gait: three beats struck flat, then three eighths
% spilling out over the fourth. Chant is the upper line and Mirror
% the lower, and Mirror earns its name: in the first bar it is Chant
% reflected around the tonic note for note ('^'), and in the third it
% is that reflection three steps lower. In the second and fourth bars
% the two break the mirror and walk the same way.

Chant ::= 3 - 3 - 3 4 5 4 - 1 - .6 - 3 4 3 1 - 1 - 1 2 3 2 1 - 1 - 1 .7 1 2
Mirror ::= .6 - .6 - .6 .5 .4 .5 - .3 - .3 - .3 .4 .3 .5 - .5 - .5 .4 .3 .4 .2 - .2 - .2 .3 .4 .5
Weave ::= {Chant, Mirror}

Weave _2
assert Mirror[:8] == Chant[:8]^
assert Mirror[16:24] == Chant[16:24]^@~-3

% mm.29-36: the bells. Toll strikes e, g, c, e in three octaves at
% once; the bar after it is the same four steps of the scale lower,
% which turns the octaves into F# diminished. Settle answers in plain
% triads (C, E minor, A minor, C) and the fourth bar is one E minor
% chord spread from e2 to b4 and held the whole measure. Knell is the
% four of them together. It is said twice here, and the second time
% the chant's own last two bars are laid over it.

Toll ::= {.1, 1, '1} - {.3, 3, '3} - {..6, .6, 6} - {.1, 1, '1} -
Settle ::= {..6, .1, .3} - {.1, .3, .5} - {..4, ..6, .1} - {..6, .1, .3} -
Knell ::= Toll Toll@~-4 Settle {..1, .3, 5} _8

Knell _2
{Knell, -*16 Chant[16:]} _2
assert Toll@~-4 == {..4, .4, 4} - {..6, .6, 6} - {..2, .2, 2} - {..4, .4, 4} -

% mm.37-40: the ground returns underneath, and what rides on it is
% the chant, whole, with no lower voice at all. Nothing here is new:
% two things the piece already owns, heard together for the first
% time.

{Ground, Chant} _2

% mm.41-48, and then all of it at once. Eight bars, three voices,
% and not one note that has not already been named: the ground and
% then the climb below, the tune and its third above them both.

{Ground, Verse} _2
{Climb, Verse} _2

% mm.49-60: the end is a repeat and a repeat. The weave once more,
% then the bells twice over, ending where every four bars of them
% end: one E minor chord across three octaves, held to the last
% sixteenth of the bar.

Weave _2
Knell*2 _2

running…edit it and it re-runs as you type

Noodlin' · Showcase