The Music
The music is comprised of sine tones, continuously pitch-bending and pulsing their way through a rising then descending sequence of fifths, punctuated by electronic bells striking every 2½ minutes. The piece builds a ‘canon’ up to the mid-point, which then gradually deconstructs, to finish with the sound of a single bell. Each capsule of the London Eye will carry the same source material, travelling at a precise speed of 23.055 m/s, resulting in the material being repeated, at intervals, 32 times (32 capsules) to create a musical round.
There are two sine-tone pulse-rates, which create three stages or ‘movements’. The interval between capsules commencing, at the designated rotation speed, is 58.06 seconds, optimizing the piece at 1 hour, with movements of 15 minutes, 30 minutes and 15 minutes.
Movement 1: capsules 1-16 carry a tone pulsing at a rate of 90 bpm Movement 2: capsules 17-31 carry a tone pulsing at a rate of 15 bpm. Pod 32 begins at 15 bpm then halfway (12 O’clock), switches to the faster 90 bpm, signaling the start of the 3rd and final movement. Movement 3: capsules 17 – 32 gradually return to 6 O’clock, and the sound gradually dissipates.
The bells are also treated with a timed delay for a short number of repeats – 1 second for the bells over the 90 bpm tones, 2 seconds for those over the 15 bpm tones. This poignantly illuminates the ‘passing’ of the pitch-bending sine-tone it was momentarily in accord with and adds another rhythmic element, based on the subdivisions of a minute/hour. Every sine-pulsation / movement in pitch / bell-sound forms an essential component of the piece’s developing structure. Eye Tones therefore achieves ‘total form’ with total integrity of all sound materials.
The performance of this hour long piece is intended for 1am on the 31st October, in the final hour of British Summertime. Uniquely, the start and end time of the performance will be 1am – BST then GMT.
Music Samples
00:00 - 03:00
The start of the piece (launch of the first 3 capsules).
14:00 - 17:00
The transition from the first movement to the second, where the first capsule starts its descent.
38:00 - 41:00
Toward the end of the second movement.
57:00 - 60:00
The end of the piece.