Harmonic Fantasy No. 5

Composer's Note:

Harmonic Fantasy No. 5 is pure overtone music, which is to say that each individual overtone of each tone is specified separately. Unlike my previous harmonic fantasies, in which all or most of the overtones from the fundamental up to some limit were always used, in this work the only overtones that are used are those that help to define the harmony of the passage in which they appear. The maximum that is used for any one tone is 17; some tones use as few as 7. On the other hand, the perception of the fundamental is always present, although in some cases only fleetingly. Most sounds use only the first 24 partials. When the work begins, only harmonics three octaves above the fundamental and higher are used. As the work proceeds, more lower harmonics are introduced, but the fundamentals do not appear until about two and a half minutes into the piece. From that point on, all included harmonics are used. Harmonies are defined by using the intervals in the overtone series corresponding to the intervallic structure of the chord from the highest downwards, usually starting from the 24th partial, which is four octaves and a fifth above the fundamental. The piece was composed in April 2020 during the coronavirus epidemic when I was forced to stay at home, only leaving the house to get food.