Stockholm Syndrome For City Hum- A piece for 1 player with 2 bass guitars.

This post is the score for this piece of music. A video performance of it can be found here. The piece consists of 16 actions over about 6 minutes. The performer interacts with the 'natural' hum of the gear. You're welcome to play it whenever or wherever you like, but please attribute it according to the standard creative commons attribution license. Also please let me know :)

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME FOR CITY HUM

This piece is a metaphor for those hums and other buzzes we hear that we have little to no control over; those ambiguous sounds we hear in the night, in the city. Inspiration for this piece came from a sound I hear every day, through every speakers in my house. This sound is apparently some reset signal for hot water cylinders. This intermittent, quasi-rhythmic hum is both infuriating and pervasive. It is so constantly and obviously present that it sometimes becomes comforting.

Gear:

2 Bass Guitars (1 player)

Compressor (10:1 ratio, min threshold, min attack, max release, +10dB). I use an Alesis 3630.

Powerful Bass Amp

Crowther Hotcake overdrive pedal or similar. (level at unity, max tone, drive at 2 o’clock)

Routing:

Bass 1 => Compressor => Hotcake => Amp input

Bass 2 => Compressor

You will need a y-cable or connector for this. Also required are 4 jack leads (2 can be patch cables).

Instrument Setup:

Wear both bass guitars with straps as you would normally do, but push Bass 2 to the right-hand side (reverse this for left-handed playing). Bass 2 will is not fretted at all in the piece, so only the plucking hand is needed for it. Bass 1 is worn and played normally, with both hands.

Much of this piece consists of controlled low-frequency feedback (the compressor really helps with this) and thus the player’s proximity to the amp is crucial. At more than 2m distance the amp would have to exceed a safe listening level for the notes to sustain properly.

The other thing that the player is controlling is the hum/buzz. When this high-gain system receives no signal, it amplifies whatever it can find, resulting in a buzz. In the score, The notated dynamics relate only to the strength with which the strings are plucked. The blue represents the guitar signal, and the yellow represents the hum. The line between the colours describes the length of time that the notes should linger before the hum creeps in. This is mostly controlled by the timing (indicated at the start of each bar) and the velocity with which the strings are plucked (notated as dynamics markings) but in sparse music like this a visual indication of what’s going on is very useful.

The ‘touch’ and ‘no metal’ markings indicate whether the player should be grounding the metal on the guitar or not. Any metal part on the instrument is fine. Most electric guitars and basses have a buzz when they’re not grounded to the player (usually through the strings). Letting this buzz come through and hit the compressor is a large part of the aesthetic of the piece.

Tunings:

Both basses are downtuned. The F string on Bass 1 is a tone below the G it would usually be in standard tuning. The low B on Bass 2 is a fourth below the E that it would be in standard.

Bass 1: Bass 2:

F2 E2

B1 B1

F#1 F#1

C#1 B0