Organum (album)

Last updated
Organum
Peter Michael Hamel - Organum.jpg
Studio album by
Released1986
Genre Electronic
Length57:02
Label Kuckuck
Producer Ulrich Kraus
Peter Michael Hamel chronology
Transition
(1981)
Organum
(1986)
Let It Play: Selected Pieces 1979-1983
(1987)
Professional ratings
Review scores
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Organum is the ninth album of electronic composer Peter Michael Hamel, released in 1986 through Kuckuck Schallplatten.

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments and circuitry-based music technology. In general, a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means, and that produced using electronics only. Electromechanical instruments include mechanical elements, such as strings, hammers, and so on, and electric elements, such as magnetic pickups, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, and the electric guitar, which are typically made loud enough for performers and audiences to hear with an instrument amplifier and speaker cabinet. Pure electronic instruments do not have vibrating strings, hammers, or other sound-producing mechanisms. Devices such as the theremin, synthesizer, and computer can produce electronic sounds.

Peter Michael Hamel is a German composer. His works have been associated with the minimalist style of composition, and in the late 1970s with the New Simplicity movement.

Kuckuck Schallplatten is a German record label founded in August 1969 by Eckart Rahn, Mal Sondock and the advertising agency ConceptData in Munich, growing out of his music publishing company E.R.P. Musikverlag which was founded on April 1, 1968. It was distributed by Deutsche Grammophon (Polydor). It is the first German progressive rock-label. It is now the longest-surviving independent label in Germany. Most of its recordings have been reissued on CD, and all are now available as downloads.

Contents

Track listing

All music composed by Peter Michael Hamel.

No.TitleLength
1."Part 1"25:32
2."Part 2"8:34
3."Part 3"17:16
4."Part 4"5:40

Personnel

Pipe organ wind instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called wind) through pipes selected via a keyboard

The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through the organ pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass. Most organs have multiple ranks of pipes of differing timbre, pitch, and volume that the player can employ singly or in combination through the use of controls called stops.

Conch (instrument) musical instrument

Conch, or conque, also known as a "seashell horn" or "shell trumpet", is a musical instrument, a wind instrument that is made from a seashell (conch), the shell of several different kinds of very large sea snails. As described by instrument maker Bart Hopkins, such shells are a "gift from the sea that provides a natural conical bore is conch. Conch shell trumpets have been played in many Pacific Island countries, as well as South America and Southern Asia. They produce warm, full, and far-carrying tone."

Tingsha

Tibetan tingsha are small cymbals used in prayer and rituals by Tibetan Buddhist practitioners. Two cymbals are joined together by a leather strap or chain. The cymbals are struck together producing a clear and high pitched tone. Typical sizes range from 2.5–4 inches in diameter. Tingsha are very thick and produce a unique long ringing tone. Antique tingsha were made from special bronze alloys that produce harmonic overtones.

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Pérotin 12th century French composer

Perotinus Magnus, was a composer from around the late 12th century, associated with the Notre Dame school of polyphony in Paris and the ars antiqua musical style. The title Magister Perotinus, means that he was licensed to teach. The only information on his life with any degree of certainty comes from an anonymous English student at Notre Dame known as Anonymous IV. It is assumed that he was French and named Pérotin, a diminutive of Peter, but attempts to match him with persons in other documents remain speculative.

Organum is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bass line may be sung on the same text, the melody may be followed in parallel motion, or a combination of both of these techniques may be employed. As no real independent second voice exists, this is a form of heterophony. In its earliest stages, organum involved two musical voices: a Gregorian chant melody, and the same melody transposed by a consonant interval, usually a perfect fifth or fourth. In these cases the composition often began and ended on a unison, the added voice keeping to the initial tone until the first part has reached a fifth or fourth, from where both voices proceeded in parallel harmony, with the reverse process at the end. Organum was originally improvised; while one singer performed a notated melody, another singer—singing "by ear"—provided the unnotated second melody. Over time, composers began to write added parts that were not just simple transpositions, thus creating true polyphony.

Léonin was the first known significant composer of polyphonic organum. He was probably French, probably lived and worked in Paris at the Notre Dame Cathedral and was the earliest member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style who is known by name. The name Léonin is derived from "Leoninus," which is the Latin diminutive of the name Leo; therefore it is likely that Léonin's given French name was Léo.

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The Novum Organum, fully Novum Organum, sive indicia vera de Interpretationes Naturae, is a philosophical work by Francis Bacon, written in Latin and published in 1620. The title is a reference to Aristotle's work Organon, which was his treatise on logic and syllogism. In Novum Organum, Bacon details a new system of logic he believes to be superior to the old ways of syllogism. This is now known as the Baconian method.

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David Jackman is a British musician and visual artist with an extensive catalogue of drone works, mostly as the principal — and often sole — member of Organum.

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Idola tribus is a category of logical fallacy, normally translated as "Idols of the Tribe", which refers to a tendency of human nature to prefer certain types of incorrect conclusions. It is a Latin term, coined by Sir Francis Bacon and used in his Novum Organum, one of the earliest treatises arguing the case for the methodical approach of modern science.

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Let It Play: Selected Pieces 1979–1983 is a compilation by composer Peter Michael Hamel, released in 1987 through Kuckuck Schallplatten. In addition to two unreleased pieces, Let It Play comprises pieces from his albums Colours of Time, Bardo, and Transition.

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References

  1. Kohanov, Linda. "Organum". Allmusic. Retrieved July 31, 2012.