Setting the World At Five And Seven

An unidentified species counterpoint for solo clavichord (or piano played like a clavichord), (2008), c.4’

“Since each hand is essentially in a different time signature, the only meaningful meter to indicate for Setting the World at Five and Seven is 1:1 since the two parts share the same downbeat. Therefore a metronome marking of whole note equals 30 means that the left hand’s quintuplets go by at 150 and the right hand’s septuplets go by at 210. This polyrhythm temporarily resolves to both hands playing parallel septuplets, but this is merely to prepare for a metrical modulation to a situation where the left hand’s subsequent quintuplets are at 210, making the right hand’s septuplets speed up to 274, hence the overall whole note equal 42. Eventually the parallel septuplets return to prepare for a reverse metrical modulation back to the original tempo. To keep listeners focused on this polyrhythm, the pitches are limited to a pentatonic scale (although that’s a 5 as well) and the harmonic progression is a standard 12-bar blues although it probably won’t sound like a blues to most people.”