I Ching Music First period organization

Take the Tour

Ways to use this in music

For the composer this may be the most important page.

This list is of some of the different ways I have used the I ching
as a resource for music compositions.

I.
Scale is obvious.

II.
Form
In using a recording program, like digital performer, that I use, a whole composition can be shrunk down so it can be viewed on one page. Here you can see the hexagram +,+.-,+,-,-

++++     ++++   --------                   ++++    -------------         --------------

In the particles section of my opus 159, Waves and Particles, the Yin or
receptive energy is slower and therefor is the longer sections.

III.
Chords & Arpeggios
My I Ching arpeggios CD is still popular after ten years. This is done with a pattern the is based on the relationship between the scale and the harmonic series a simple versions of a major scale would be 1, 9, 5, 21, 3, 27, 15 and then 2 so then the harmonic signature of the c major scale would be C, G, E, D, B, F, A (from low to high)

IV.
Rhythm
This seems obvious also,
but there are two main ways to interpret the I Ching patterns as rhythm.

would be or

I prefer the first version above, it seems more accurate to the I Ching and the music become more complex; less normal

V.
Like Wagner, I have an archetypal melody for each Hexagram

VI.
I have a whole set of little piece called I ching rhythm patterns

VII.
In some of my newest work like Opus 170 I Ching (#27) Meditation & Dance (icmd27) I am using the four basic sound types (Sine wave, Square wave, Triangle wave and Saw tooth wave) as a main part of the piece, sort of replacing the string section with a computer generated sound group. (None of these pieces have been recorded yet).

VIII.
My Opus 148 "One -hundred-twenty-eight Amens" takes us from the universal fundamental "F" through the harmonic series up to the 128 partial each step takes us through a simple chord progression in each of the 64 hexagrams and then some . . .

IX.
Work in progress (March 2011)