Let's make some music with the toneclock.

The melody we are going to use is made in the second hour. The last six notes are an inversion of the first six notes.

We 'transpose' this melody into the fourth hour. The minor seconds remain intact, the major seconds become major thirds. The tritone between note 6 and 7 remains a tritonus. The range has grown to a minor tenth in stead of a major seventh.

Then we transpose the melody in the fifth hour. The major thirds have become quarters now. The tritonus has become a minor third. The range is a major seventh again.

In the seventh hour the minor seconds have become major seconds, the quarters have become minor thirds. Between note 6 and 7 is a tritone again.

In the eighth hour the minor thirds have become major thirds. The tritonus has changed into a major third. The range is a minor ninth.

In the ninth hour the major thirds have become quarters. The tritonus is back. The range is an eleventh.

When you press the button, you will hear a midi-file with all the examples.

Let us use this musical material to compose some pieces. We are going back to our main melody in the second hour. In the accompaniment of the left hand we have used second hour chords (1+2 or 2+1). The triads of the accompaniment are a minor third lower in relation to the melody.

Avoid using the same note in in the melody as in the accompanement. C and C sharp doesn'n occur in the chord A flat-F-G. E flat, D, E natural and f doesn't occur in the chord B flat-A-C.

Here you can find an in-depth analysis of the piece.

Exemple in 4th hour. The triads of the accompaniment are a minor third lower in relation to the melody.

Example in 5th hour. The triads of the accompaniment are a major third and a minor sixth lower in relation to the melody. The steering notes of all the triads of this piece contain all different 12 notes of the chromatic scale.

Here you can find an in-depth analysis of the piece.

Example in 7th hour.

Example in 8th hour.

Example in the 9th hour. In this piece all the steeringsnotes of the triads of the melody as the triads of the accompaniment covered the chromatic scale. A similar situation as with example in 5th hour.

It is also possible to harmonize a melody with triads of another hour than the hour of the melody. We go back to our melody in the second hour and make a choral of it with chords of the eighth hour.

C is in the red triad, C sharp in the blue one. E flat is in the yellow triad and D in the green triad.

And now we harmonize this melody with 11th hour triads.

We give you the graphic of the 11th hour:

Finally a example of some tone-clock pieces made by Liselotte Sels from Belgium. She used the principles of the tone-clock less strict than we do in our exemples. You can found her works here.

When you have composed a nice piece with the toneclock principles, send us a score and midi file or mp3 to us. Than we can play it for an world wide audience!

 

Some fragments of Peter Schat best tone-clock piece for orchestra, De Hemel, you van found here.

 

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